Room of Requirement
by Fission25
Summary: While enjoying a more realistic use of the Room of Requirement, Harry walks his own path toward maturity in a world filled with pureblood bigotry, corruption and evil. Fifth year AU. Mature content.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books, Raincoast Books, and Warner Brothers Inc. No money is being made, and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Harry grimaced. The constant throbbing from his scar was really starting to annoy him. Actually, his entire fifth year at Hogwarts was annoying him. And thinking about it wasn't helping any. It was already past midnight, and he still needed to finish his Potions essay.

He'd been reading and re-reading the same passage for well over an hour now, but he couldn't concentrate enough to actually understand it. Fitful sleep and problems concentrating … They each happened a lot during the summer. Normally, it was his trusty owl, Hedwig, who had been able to calm him down enough. This time, however, he couldn't visit Hedwig as she was still healing from having been injured delivering a letter to him.

Not doing an assignment wasn't an option when it was for Snape, so Harry hunkered down to try to read through the text once more. Unfortunately, he only lasted for a couple paragraphs before his concentration lapsed again. There was just so much going on with his life right then, and very little of it was good.

Umbridge, the under-secretary to the Minister of Magic and now Hogwarts' Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, had quickly become someone he despised. Standing up to her and telling the truth was the only option Harry saw. Unfortunately, everyone else seemed to be against him on this. That was even more surprising than the Ministry acting the way it was. Voldemort murdered a fellow student, and his professors wanted him to roll over and just let the Ministry continue to deny it? McGonagall was supposed to be head of Gryffindor! How was acting like a sniveling coward a Gryffindor trait?

The other students, too, were acting odd. Many didn't believe him. While he wasn't happy with their reaction, he could at least understand it — as the students had turned against him for one reason or another nearly every year. But his friends and housemates who believed him were acting as if standing up to Umbridge and the Ministry was wrong. Even the twins, who were some of the biggest troublemakers in the school, had kept silent with any support of him. He knew they would go against her on principle alone, but they wouldn't stand up to her directly or even offer him any support.

Angelina was another problem. Quidditch practice used to be something he really looked forward to. Unfortunately, this year he couldn't even rely on Quidditch to help him through. A part of him could understand Angelina's frustration. It was her first, and only, year as Captain, and they'd gone from winning the House Cup third year to only being a mediocre team. Having no Quidditch practices for more than an entire year had left them all a bit rusty. But losing a keeper of Oliver Wood's skill had also hurt their team dramatically. Quidditch was a team sport, and unless every single member was up to par, the entire team would do poorly. Knowing why she was frustrated with him was of very little help though. Some things were more important than Quidditch: Cedric's murder and Voldemort's return were two of them.

He also needed to find someplace to have their defense meetings. That was something he really wasn't looking forward to either. When Hermione had badgered him into teaching them defense, he'd thought it would be her and Ron and maybe a few others like the twins and Ginny. He had not expected 28 students. And now with Umbridge's new decree, using a spare classroom was not going to work.

Harry was still lost in thought when someone calling his name startled him.

"Dobby?" he asked, seeing the eccentric House Elf he'd freed from the Mafloys.

"Dobby knows how much great Harry Potter, sir, loves his owl. So Dobby volunteered to bring her to him."

"Thanks, Dobby!"

"It's good to see you too, girl," Harry said as Hedwig glided over to his shoulder and gave him an affectionate nip. That was at least one thing off his list to worry about.

"Harry Potter is bothered, sir?" asked Dobby. "Dobby has heard Harry Potter, sir, is not having good year. Dobby wishes he could do something to help."

"Sorry, Dobby," he said with a frown. "I don't think you'll be able to help unless you can make the Ministry admit Voldemort is back or happen to have a spare room where nearly thirty people can meet without being caught."

"Dobby not help with evil you-know-who, but Dobby knows of place to meet, sir," he said bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet in eagerness. "Dobby heard tell of it from the other house-elves when he came to Hogwarts, sir. It is known by us as the Come and Go Room, sir, or else as the Room of Requirement!"

"Why?" asked Harry curiously.

"Because it is a room that a person can only enter when they have real need of it," said Dobby seriously. "Sometimes it is there, and sometimes it is not. But when it appears, it is always equipped for the seeker's needs. Dobby has used it, sir," said the elf, dropping his voice and looking guilty. "When Winky has been very drunk, he has hidden her in the Room of Requirement, and he has found antidotes to Butterbeer there, and a nice elf-sized bed to settle her on while she sleeps it off, sir ... and Dobby knows Mr. Filch has found extra cleaning materials there when he has run short, sir, and "

"And if you really needed a bathroom," said Harry, suddenly remembering something Dumbledore talked about at the Yule Ball the previous Christmas, "would it fill itself with chamber pots?"

"Dobby expects so, sir," said Dobby, nodding earnestly. "It is a most amazing room, sir."

"How many people know about it?" said Harry, sitting up straighter in his chair.

"Very few, sir. Mostly people stumbles across it when they needs it, sir. But often they never finds it again, for they do not know that it is always there waiting to be called into service, sir."

"It sounds brilliant," said Harry, his heart racing. "It sounds perfect, Dobby. When can you show me where it is?"

"Any time, Harry Potter, sir," said Dobby, looking delighted at Harry's enthusiasm. "We could go now, if you like!"

For a moment Harry was tempted to put it off until another time. He still had Snape's essay to finish. He grinned; the room provided the seeker's needs ... "Alright Dobby, let me go get my invisibility cloak."

"Sir not need. Dobby very good at not being seen, sir," Dobby said happily. "Dobby not let Harry Potter be seen."

Harry felt a slight chill form around him as the House Elf snapped his fingers. "What'd you do Dobby?"

"We use magic so not disturbing Masters when cleaning, sir. Only other House Elves notice Harry Potter now, sir."

"That's incredible Dobby! Thank you."

Dobby led Harry to the entrance, explaining as much as he could about the Room of Requirement, before returning to his duties.

Harry wasn't sure what to expect really, but what he saw when he entered wasn't it.

The room itself reminded him of a cross between a library and the Gryffindor common room. It was decorated in Gryffindor colors. and there was a comfortable looking red chair pulled up to sturdy wooden table that held his Potions text and homework. One wall had a lighted fireplace that kept the room warm and a window that looked out at the night sky. All that was quite nice, but it was the wall off to the right of the table that amazed him that most. It was like he was looking through a window into Grimmauld Place!

Sirius, Remus, and Tonks were lounging on the sofas in the sitting room. It looked like Sirius and Remus were explaining something to Tonks but couldn't agree with each other. Whatever it was, Tonks seemed to really be enjoying watching the two of them. He could tell she was trying to hold in her laughter. Harry stood there watching them argue with each other for a few minutes before sitting down to finish his potions homework. It was amazing how much easier he found the homework now that he could glance over and see Sirius sitting there talking.

Quidditch practice was canceled the next day. Harry almost scheduled the first defense meeting for that evening, but he decided against it. After all, he thought to himself, Dobby did say that people could find it on occasion; he needed to make sure it worked every time before telling anyone about it. Taking advantage of the unexpected break, Harry found himself in the Room looking in on Grimmauld Place again.

Mrs. Weasley was preparing a delicious looking dinner, and he laughed as Sirius, Remus, and Mr. Shacklebolt picked on the food as she was distracted by one of the others. She bravely attempted to prevent the pilfering, but it was clearly a loosing battle. Harry watched them for a few more minutes before moving on to why he was there in the first place.

The thought of needing a room to teach in had barely entered his mind when the room shifted before his eyes. No longer was it the small, cozy study room he'd needed last night. Now it was a large room containing several bookcases full of books, practice targets, and several cushions laid out on the floor. Taking a quick look through the books, Harry found quite a few spells he'd never heard of before, as well as several interesting ideas on how to use magic in a fight. There wasn't time to go through them all now though. He needed to get back to Gryffindor Tower before he was missed.

Later that night, Harry made his way back to the Room of Requirement as soon as he was reasonably sure his roommates were asleep and thought of the small room he'd done his homework in the night before. The room appeared just as he remembered, and he saw Grimmauld Place through the window in front of him. He found Sirius and Remus, along with Tonks, Shacklebolt and Mr. Weasley, chatting in the kitchen of headquarters. There were a couple of the books that interested earlier on the table, so he picked up the one on defensive strategies and started reading.

This was fast becoming Harry's favorite way of studying. Being able to glance up and see Sirius anytime he wanted almost made it seem like he had a family, a home. The book itself was a bit beyond his understanding in many areas, but still he learned a lot about defending himself. He'd have to learn the exact spells later, but just the idea that you could keep multiple levels of shielding spells on you at the same time was huge.

He was reading about strategies for defending yourself against multiple opponents when he glanced up and noticed Tonks was no longer there. The mere thought of wondering where she'd gone had only just crossed his mind when the view changed. The book he'd been reading was instantly forgotten as Harry stared at the sight before him.

Tonks' friendly and carefree attitude had drawn his attention nearly immediately during the summer. She didn't talk to him as if he was a small a child like most the adults did, and she had a way of drawing him out of his funk with laughter. The fact that many of her shirts were a little too short and oftentimes revealed a stripe of skin between her shirt and pants didn't hurt. He tried not to be obvious about his interest, though Ron had teased him a bit after catching Harry glance her way one too many times.

Now though, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Tonks was in the shower, naked. Harry couldn't take his eyes off her lean, muscular body. He'd known she was in good shape — she was an Auror after all — but seeing her starkers showed off just how fit she really was.

The water ran down her body, glistening over her muscles and giving her skin an almost heavenly shine. Her pink hair looked longer now that it was wet and partially covered her eyes. Her breasts, while no-where near the large melons he'd seen in a couple magazines floating around Gryffindor Tower, looked amazing. As she moved on to washing her legs, she turned, raised one foot on to the side of the shower wall and bent down slightly, giving Harry his first view of her incredible backside.

After watching her for a few more moments, he was able to snap out of his trance and closed his eyes, trying to think of anything but Tonks. _The Weasleys!_ They were safe to think about.

Unfortunately, today they weren't.

Instead of one of the six brothers Harry thought would be safe, there in front of him was the image of the youngest, and only, Weasley girl reading a book in bed. This wouldn't be too bad normally as he'd seen her read books quite often over the years. Unfortunately for him, or fortunately — he wasn't quite sure which yet — this time she was naked.

Ginny's skin was pale with only the barest hint of color. Her breasts were small in comparison to Tonks', but they still looked great on someone as small as she was. He'd always known she was small compared to the rest of her family, but he hadn't realized just how petite till now. Harry groaned softly as he watched one of her hands absentmindedly skimming ever so slowly up her body. _This was Ron's little sister!  
_  
_Little?_ She sure didn't look like a little girl at the moment. As much as part of him wanted to, he had a hard time turning away. Finally though, he managed to gather enough concentration and this time thought of a male Weasley.

For a brief moment both relief and disappointment flooded through his body as the image of Ginny dissolved to be replaced with that of her eldest brother, Bill. It didn't last long though as his mouth dropped open a moment later when a gorgeous blonde appeared next to him, Fleur.

She was dressed. Well, if you could call what she was wearing dressed — she wasn't starkers, though. A small, blue nightgown covered all her important bits, but was sheer enough that it only hid the most minute of details. She was flawless. Her breasts firmly stuck out in round circles from her chest and were larger than he imagined. Bill barely even noticed though, seemingly too engrossed in his work to pay her attention. After only a few kisses to the back of his neck, Bill turned and said something softly to her. Fleur apparently took the hint and went back to the other room.

As much as he hated seeing her go, Harry was finally able to force himself to leave the room. Breathing heavily, he nearly ran all the way back to his dorm where he quickly disrobed and threw himself into his bed.

--

The next few days were quite trying for Harry. He felt disgusted and ashamed of himself. The worst part was that even though the guilt weighed heavily upon him, he couldn't stop thinking about that night. Every time he saw Ginny in the common room, the halls, or the Great Hall, the picture of her hand skimming across her body came to the forefront of his mind.

While eating breakfast with his friends the second morning, he saw Hermione's tongue flick out and lick a bit of milk off her upper lip. Unintentionally, he let out an audible groan from the sight, which caused Hermione to ask if he was all right. He quickly made up some excuse and went back to eating, making sure not to look at her again.

All through the day, he couldn't stop himself from thinking about what Hermione might look like under her robes. Harry knew she'd been seeing Victor most of last year. And though she never let on that anything had happened, he was no fool. He saw her after she came back from studying in the library and could guess what type of 'studying' she'd done. He was also fairly sure she had borrowed his cloak on more than one occasion to sneak out late at night, though he'd never asked to make sure. He wasn't jealous. Unlike Ron, he'd known she was a girl and, if anything, thought Victor had been good for her. He also wasn't worried about her being pressured to go too far, knowing how strong her morals and stubbornness were. Besides, he doubted Hermione would do anything like that with someone who wouldn't be there after the year.

It wasn't just Ginny and Hermione though; nearly all the girls in the DA had come up to him in the past couple days wanting to know when the first meeting would be. After the fourth day, Harry swore there was a conspiracy to drive him nuts and that they were all in on it. Each girl seemed to be wearing her skirt a little too high, shirt a little too tight, or have one too many buttons open while slightly bent over to talk to him. The last staraw was Hermione. While doing homework on the fourth evening, he glanced over and saw her softly nibbling and licking the end of a sugar quill as she concentrated on the text in front of her. Images of what else she could do with that talented tongue flashed through his mind, and that was it.

He wanted to see Sirius again.

At least that's what he told his conscience as he snuck through the corridors later that night. And Sirius was exactly who Harry saw when he entered the room. The view only lasted a few moments though before it turned directly to Tonks. Relief and frustration both flooded through his system as he found the Auror working at her desk in the Ministry of Magic. He watched her for a few minutes and was rather amused to see that she kept the same fun attitude he enjoyed this summer while working. After the view changed back to Sirius, Harry grabbed the book on defensive strategies again and started to read through it.

The studying didn't go nearly as well at first as he found the image changing to Tonks several times throughout the night. He was slightly disappointed to find her working each time. After a while though, Harry found himself engrossed in the strategies of fighting multiple opponents.

The next time he looked up, Sirius was asleep, and Harry realized it was nearly three in the morning! Harry cursed at himself for having lost track of the time; he'd be tired tomorrow. Still, it'd been worth it. He probably wouldn't have been able to get a lot of sleep with how horny he'd been earlier anyway. With that thought, the image of Sirius changed to Tonks, only she wasn't at work this time.

She wasn't in the shower either, but she was wearing only a pair of knickers that seemed to conform to her magnificent arse as if they were molded just for her. Her hips were swaying as she straightened up her flat, and Harry figured there must've been music playing, though he wouldn't put it past Tonks to dance to music only she could hear. He watched her for several minutes, enticed by the movements of her long athletic legs and the bobbing and swaying of her breasts. They weren't as large as they had been when he watched her in the shower, but they were incredibly perky and bounced along perfectly with her body.

The guilt returned slightly as he watched Tonks, but not as much this time. Harry knew he shouldn't be watching her, but he couldn't deny he felt a bit of a thrill at doing so. He justified it to himself by saying that it wasn't like he was hurting her and that she'd never know. In truth, he wasn't even positive it really was Tonks, as it very well could be some sort of illusion the room provided. His conscience satisfied, Harry moved the chair a bit closer and continued to watch her.

He woke up tired the next morning and slowly opened his eyes to see Tonks sleeping in bed. Harry closed his eyes again for a moment before they snapped open and he jumped up in surprise.

It took a moment before everything started to sink in. He couldn't believe he'd fallen asleep! He grabbed his invisibility cloak and ran over to Gryffindor Tower as quickly as he could. It was light out already, but thankfully it looked like the sun had only risen a little while ago. With luck, he'd be back before anyone noticed him missing.

Of course, Harry should have known better to count on luck.

"Where were you last night, mate?" Ron asked the moment the three of them left the common room for breakfast.

Thinking quickly Harry decided to tell them a partial truth. "Looking over a place for the meetings. I haven't been able to find what I wanted, so I asked Dobby, and he told me of a room."

"Dobby?" asked Hermione. "Are you sure it was wise without one of us with you? I know he means well, but ..."

That comment irked Harry a bit, even if it was a valid point. She was the one involved with Elfish rights after all. "He was right, though. I checked it out last night. It's great."

"Great! So we'll start to let everyone know when we're going to meet today."

"No!" Harry said a little too quickly. "Um ... It won't work. I'm going to talk to him again later to find something else."

"Thought you said it was great. Why won't it work?" Ron asked him.

Harry was wracking his brain for anything to tell them. It wasn't like he could just tell Ron the truth. Yeah, it's perfect, but I'm worried that my concentration will slip and instead of a dueling room, we'll have a life size image of your little sister in bed.

"It's too far out of the way," Harry finally told them.

"Well that's even better, mate. There's less chance to get caught."

"No," Hermione interjected. "Don't you remember what Snuffles said? We were noticed in Hogshead because we were out of place."

"I didn't think of it, but you're right, Harry," she said as she stopped walking and gave him a large smile. "We need someplace that won't easily be stumbled upon but also where students won't be immediately noticed when walking to it."

"Thanks," Harry told her, flushing under her smile while hoping it didn't show. He'd seen Hermione smile before; but with all the thoughts and hormones running through his body, it was different this time. "I'm going to ask him again during lunch. Can you two cover for me?"

"Of course, mate! We'll even nick some food for you. Now will you two come on! Breakfast will be over soon, and you know I can't stand Potions on an empty stomach."

It seemed there was one good thing that came from the conspiracy around him. He was so preoccupied with thoughts about the girls around him that he didn't pay attention to all the snide remarks and whispers that followed him around daily.

During lunch, Harry visited Dobby in the kitchens and described the new room he needed; one where they wouldn't be found, but not so out of the way that students would be noticed walking to and fro. Dobby knew the perfect place and led Harry away after talking with another elf for a moment. They'd only been walking a couple minutes when Dobby announced they were there.

"Um ... Dobby, it's a wall."

"The door is spelled not to be noticed Harry Potter, sir. Look."

As Dobby snapped his fingers another cold feeling flashed over his body and, to Harry's amazement, a door seemed to appear right in from of him.

"Come Harry Potter, sir, Dobby will explain inside."

The room was smaller than what Harry wanted, but what it contained was amazing: 14 magical doors. Each of the doors went to a different part of the castle. The doors, Dobby explained, had originally been used by the staff to monitor all the students in the castle. That was a long time ago, though, when Hogwarts was one of the only magical schools in the world and had ten times as many students as it did now.

The knowledge of the room was lost over the centuries, and Dobby didn't think anyone else beside the House Elves even knew it existed. To Harry it was perfect, and he thanked the little House-Elf profusely for his help. With all the doors going to a different part of the castle, everyone could arrive in small groups. If each group took a different way, no one would realize anything was up!

After classes, he showed Ron and Hermione to the room. Ron instantly fell in love with it and wanted to start using it as a shortcut to some of the classes. Harry actually liked the idea himself as, depending on how ornery the stairs were being, there really were times when they'd sprint from one class to the next and still barely make it on time.

Unfortunately, Hermione would have none of it, insisting that if they started using it all the time the room wouldn't remain secret for long. She did like Harry's idea of everyone arriving in small groups by the different doors, and she even found a way to deal with the smaller room size by splitting the class into two groups. This also had the advantage of lessening the scheduling conflicts caused by the Quidditch practices and other clubs and activities within the school.

Harry fell asleep early that night, being too tired to even consider going back to the Room of Requirement.

The next day turned about to be another conspiracy day for him. Harry, Ron, and Hermione decided to schedule the first meeting for later that week, and he once again seemed to have nearly all the girls from the DA coming up to him. Not that he minded — far from it really — it was just driving him insane that now his roommates seemed to be in on the conspiracy as well. None of them seemed to be in any hurry to go to bed that night. Harry ended up talking with them for ages before they finally went to sleep.

By the time he could finally sneak out of there and head back to the Room of Requirement it was past midnight and most the girls were asleep already. The few who were still awake weren't wearing anything revealing, which was probably because of the cold that seeped into the castle during the late night. Though there were a couple of girls who'd kicked back their comforters a bit, allowing him to see more of their legs, shoulders, and backs than he'd ever be able to normally.

After Cho called him brave earlier in the year and seemingly wanted to talk to him during the meeting at Hogsmeade, Harry thought maybe, just maybe, she'd been interested in him. It turned out he was wrong though, and whatever feelings for his crush were left over were silently squashed that night.

When he checked in on her, he found she wasn't alone in her bed. The girl she brought to the meeting, Marietta, was asleep under the covers with her. Cho was lying partially on top of the girl, and her head was resting on Marietta's shoulder. Harry couldn't make out all the details, but from Cho's bare back and Marietta's bare shoulders, it was fairly obvious they were at least topless.

He made a mental note to check back on them in the future. His hopes for dating her may have ended, but he was rather intrigued by the idea of the two girls together.

Fleur, too, was fast asleep, though she was alone at her own place this time. He found that Tonks was still awake and seemed to be alone at her desk in the Ministry. He watched for a few minutes as she read through a file, making a few notes here and there, while constantly glancing at what looked like a mirror on her desk. It showed an empty corridor instead of her reflection, and Harry figured she was on some sort of magical stakeout for the Ministry. Bad luck to have drawn the short straw for shifts. Still, she was smiling and seemed happy enough, even if she must've been bored out of her mind and tired from working so late at night. Her vibrant attitude towards life really did amaze him.

The night wasn't a complete waste though. He'd seen quite a bit of skin on a few girls, knew better than to get his hopes up with Cho, and managed to read through a good bit of the defense book.

"I take it you didn't find what you wanted?" Harry asked as he handed her the food he'd saved her from dinner. Hermione had disappeared into the library every chance she could for the last two days. She'd barely eaten anything all yesterday and had skipped both lunch and dinner completely today as well.

"Thanks. And no. I managed to find a few references to his spells, but he never publically published any of them, so it's been difficult to find even that. I know one of the Ravenclaws referenced one of the spells in an essay for Charms before, but even if I knew who it was, I doubt they'd admit it."

"It's so frustrating sometimes," she added with a huff that caused Harry to smile.

"Why wouldn't they tell you?" Harry asked. He knew there were quite a few Ravenclaws in the defense class he'd be teaching after all.

"Honestly, Harry, haven't you figured it out by now? The wizarding world isn't like the Muggle world in regards to the sharing of information. Knowledge really is power here. Most witches and wizards keep their works for themselves, passing it on only to their family and familial allies. Even the magical ones that don't believe in the Pureblood nonsense teach their kids not to share what they learn from their family libraries. For Muggleborns and the lesser families who don't have large libraries and extensive alliances, the only books available are what they can buy from the stores."

"That's why learning everything we can now is so important," she continued. "Hogwarts' library is one of the largest depositories of magical knowledge in the world, and we have almost unlimited access to it!"

"Oh ... I never realized. I guess I just thought it'd be like this, where we can just go pick up the book we need anytime."

"So do most other Muggleborns, but it's nearly impossible to get permission to use the library once we graduate. You need permission from both the Headmaster and the Board of Governors, and I'm sure you can guess how often that happens for a Muggleborn with people like Malfoy on the board. It's just one of the many ways the Purebloods keep their power — hoarding the knowledge. You can't get into the most powerful positions unless you've proven yourself to be one of the best in that particular field. It's much harder to reach that level when you're severely limited in the books you have access to. That's the main reason why they can continue to claim that Purebloods are better at magic than Muggleborns, when really it's the Muggleborns and Half-Bloods that are more powerful, healthier, and physically fit because of the centuries of close breading between the Pureblood families."

Harry frowned, not liking the sound of any of it. Even though his mom had been a Muggleborn, the Potter line existed long before that. _Had his family been true Purebloods? Did he have a library? And what about his parent's house? _

The stories claimed his house completely destroyed the night Voldemort attacked, but he remembered a lot about that night from his third year and didn't remember anything about it being destroyed. He received quarterly owls from Gringotts, but he'd never bothered to look into the details before. He knew Hogwarts regularly took their fees from his account, but that was about it.

"Harry!" Hermione said, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Just thinking. What was it you were looking for today anyway?"

"I'm looking for something to help us keep the meeting secret. This is serious, Harry; if you're caught, you'll be expelled."

"Trust me," he replied rather blandly. "The thought crossed my mind. But _**we're**_ already committed to it, so _**we're**_ doing this anyway." Harry wasn't going to straight out blame her because he had agreed after all, but he wasn't about to let her completely forget that she'd tricked and badgered him into it.

Hermione's flush was enough to let him know she understood. "I know. This is too important to stop even if we wanted too. That's why I was searching for a way to make sure we're not caught. Certain departments of the Ministry use magic to prevent leaking or stealing information. It's incredibly complex and uses a combination of Runes, Potions, and Wards. We can use the same idea, only simpler, here."

"The man I was researching, Randal Stephens, was an incredibly talented artist of about five centuries ago and was the first to perfect infusing a subject's echo into a painting," she said in the lecturing tone that he knew so well. "He was deathly afraid that another artist would learn how he created his masterpieces. So he ended up paying a fortune to have a series of spells developed to prevent his clients from talking about what they saw. Another artist did eventually learn the secrets by binding her senses to the man's pet dog, but that's beside the point. It'd be perfect for us, only I haven't been able to find even the slightest hint of the spell. Not even its name."

Harry could hear the frustration in her voice and couldn't help but feel for her. "Ron'll be in detention with Snape for a while yet. Want to head over to the room? We need to get it set up for the first meeting. You can even make a list of what we'll need." Hermione had a twisted love for creating lists that he'd never understand.

"I've actually thought of several things we'll need already," his friend replied as she reached into her bag for a quill and parchment. "And Ron makes me so mad! He knows we need to keep our nose clean with Snape and Umbridge, but he still picked a fight with Malfoy after class. It's not like it was even anything worth getting mad about anyway. It's only the same insults he's been throwing since first year."

"I'm really proud of you for not letting Malfoy goad you like that in front of Snape," Hermione commented as they walked out of the tower. ". It just shows how mature you've become."

Harry flushed at her praise as he kept walking. Hermione wasn't one give out such compliments lightly, yet he'd received two in less than a week. Wisely, he chose not to mention that he'd barely even noticed Snape or Malfoy the entire lesson as he'd been too busy wondering if Hermione could keep her famous concentration on making a potion while he thoroughly explored her body with his fingers.


	2. Chapter 2

"Not so fast Potter!" Angelina nearly shouted as he stepped out of the men's locker room after another embarrassing practice.

Harry rolled his eyes. As if Snape, Umbridge, and McGonagall weren't enough, Angelina seemed to have joined the Yell at Harry fan club.

"I only chose Ron because he was your friend. So I want you stay down here and work with him until there's some improvement."

"I didn't tell you to choose him, Angelina!"

"No, you didn't. And why is that? Because you weren't even there!"

"It's not like I skipped on purpose," Harry said, trying to defend himself. "I was in detention with Umbridge! And I've tried to work with him. I even offered to go out during the off hours to practice, but he won't!"

"Look, Potter," Angelina said, standing up straighter to make herself look menacing. "I don't care what it is you do, just get him to catch the bloody Quaffle! Even once or twice a practice would be a miracle right now."

Harry heard none of this. The conspiracy involving the girls left his hormones running wild; and with Angelina right in front of him, he couldn't help but stare.

She was about to rip into him for ignoring her when she noticed where exactly he was staring. Glancing down, she realized that while she may have straightened herself up to look more menacing, the stance inadvertently pulled her shirt tight against her body. Embarrassment soon changed to a smile and then a full out grin as an idea came to mind.

"You know, I've been looking forward to winning my first game as captain for years now," Angelina whispered as she arched her shoulders back, pulling her shirt even tighter and giving Harry a nearly perfect view of her rather large bra-covered chest. Running her hands down over her breasts, she grinned at hearing Harry's moan, enjoying the rather obvious effect she was having on him before bringing her lips down onto his.

Growing tired of his lack of reaction, she deepened the kiss, forcing his mouth open with her tongue. It didn't take long for him to respond after that, and she was pleasantly surprised to find he had nice, soft lips. The kiss wasn't nearly as sloppy or painful as she expected. While no tart, she'd kissed enough inexperienced boys to know that most of them tried to force their tongue as far down her throat as possible, slobbered, or were so uptight and nervous that it drove the girl nuts. That was not Harry. More reluctantly than she'd anticipated, Angelina forced her mind back to her original plan and broke the kiss.

"You want us to win, don't you Harry?"

He nodded, still somewhat out of it from his first kiss.

"I know you're a busy _man, _Harry, but I'll personally thank you for all your hard work after the match," she said, giving him one her most alluring smiles before kissing him lightly on the lips.

Harry just stood there stunned for a moment as she walked down the corridor. The feel of her lips against his had been incredible, and he knew he'd do whatever it took to make sure they won their first match. While usually blind when it came to girls, even he knew Angelina did it for just that reason — not that it mattered, really. Now all he needed was to figure out a way to help his red-headed friend.

Ron was a good, if a bit lazy, Quidditch player. What he really needed was to learn how to concentrate and keep his cool under pressure. Sure the song Malfoy and the others sang during practice was rough, but it wasn't really worse than most the other tricks all the teams, Gryffindor included, regularly used in Quidditch. Truthfully, it wasn't any worse than what Harry put up with his first year, and it couldn't even begin to compare to what happened during the height of the Slytherin/Gryffindor rivalry his third year.

He spent the rest of the evening and much of the next day trying to figure out a way to help Ron. Any sort of cheering charm was out, because it wouldn't last nearly long enough unless you really overpowered it, and then he'd be as likely to laugh at the Quaffle as catch it. A calming drought wouldn't work either, as it'd slow his reflexes too much. A deafening charm wasn't ideal, since being able to hear the players as well as the Quaffle and Bludgers was a big part of the game, but it might do in a pinch. Harry doubted it could make Ron any worse.

Asking Hermione ended up being a dead end as well. The entire Quidditch pitch was permanently charmed against potions, charms, and most other forms of magic that could be used for cheating. She was, however, touched by Harry's concern for Ron and not just for winning against Slytherin. Harry didn't dare tell her the truth.

His next idea turned out to be slightly better, but he still wasn't sure if it would be enough. It took a good bit of convincing, but Professor McGonagall finally agreed to chaperone the next couple weeks of practices. They both knew what the Slytherins were doing was not against school rules, but Harry was hoping her presence would keep Malfoy quiet anyway. It wouldn't stop Malfoy from picking on Ron after McGonagall left, so he enlisted Fred and George's help for that.

Harry figured having the twins leave a couple minutes before Ron and clear Malfoy out of the way be the best bet. Unfortunately, making sure they didn't mention it to Ron or pick on him themselves was much harder. The thought of Angelina's 'Thank You' was more than enough motivation for Harry not to accept defeat. He started with appealing to their moral side, though he doubted it would work, as Harry wasn't even sure if they had _any_ morals at all. There was slightly more hope for appealing to their big brother instinct, that Weasley's stick together, and the Weasley family pride, but none of those affected them in the least. Finally, when even a not-so-slight reminder about the money they were using to fund their business failed to work, Harry went with the only tried and true method left. Threats.  
--

"You've been busy," Angelina commented as she leaned over the sofa Hermione had recently vacated. "McGonagall held me after class to discuss your request, and Fred and George were none too happy with you last night. Do you think it'll work?"

Leaning over the way she was, her loose top hung down, and Harry eye's automatically sought the opening. Her words went in one ear and out the other as he sat there staring. Vaguely he heard her ask if he was alright, but he didn't respond. His mind too busy with the sight of the two, beautiful, chocolate orbs before him. In the Room of Requirement, he'd seen Tonks, Fleur, and even Ginny starkers, and it'd been the most incredible experience he'd ever had; but in a way, this was just as good. This was real.

Finally she realized where he was staring and moved one of her hands off the back of the sofa and to her shirt, holding it up to her chest.

The spell was broken then, and his eyes snapped up towards hers. Angelina could easily tell he was mortified and more than a little afraid at being caught. He was trying to stammer out an apology, but the poor boy could barely even talk.

"Relax. I'm not mad at you Harry. Nearly all the older boys try to look at my breasts. Why should you to be any different? To tell you the truth, it's an incredibe turn on sometimes. Other times, it just makes me sick. I can't stand the thought of some of those pricks like Flint, Davis, or Malfoy trying to sneak a peek." The disgust in her voice at the mention of their names left him let little doubt at how she felt about them.

"The thing is, Harry," she added with a grin. "Unlike the rest of the boys, if we win this next match you'll get to do more than just look at them. So, do you think it'll work?"

"Huh?" Harry asked, knowing he must sound like an idiot. But how could expect him to think after having said _that_.

"Your idea to help Ron. Do you think it'll work?"

"It'll work. I just don't know if it'll be enough. I'll think of some other ideas to help, though. One way or another, we'll destroy the Slytherins."

Angelina smiled at the conviction in his voice. _Perfect._ "That's what I wanted to hear," she said, dropping the hand from her shirt to give him another teasing view of her breasts for a few seconds before a book-laden Hermione arrived back at the sofa.

"Let me know what your next idea is," Angelina said to him as she left.

"What idea?" asked Hermione.

"Huh? Oh, just some more Quidditch ideas to help Ron."

"It's really nice of you to be looking out for him like that Harry. You're a good friend."

"I have the spells I was talking about before," she added before he had a chance to feel guilty at the good friend remark. "Now the advantage of starting off with something like a basic shielding charm is obvious, but there are certain advantages to learning a couple specialized spells first as well. The Sleeper's Tomb curse places the target in a magically induced sleep and can be used in lieu of a standard stunning spell. The advantage comes because a standard Enervate has no effect; it requires a specialized medical charm to awaken them. Unfortunately, the curse requires ten seconds to take effect, potentially allowing a Death Eater to cast several spells in retaliation."

"The advantage of learning something like the Red Shield," she explained, "is that it's incredibly powerful and will block a lot more curses than the Protego charm — but at a cost. It creates a constant drain on the caster's magic. I doubt many students could keep it active for a minute. However, for that minute they are offered a great deal more protection. Now the Tonis charm, on the other hand, is an offensive spell that creates a huge burst of wind that should knock people off balance, interrupting any spell their casting. Historically, Death Eaters outnumbered attackers by more than three to one, so a spell that affects all of them could be incredibly helpful."

"Hermione," snapped Harry. "I told you before I think working on their reflexes and aim should be first."

"We will be," Hermione quickly said in a placating tone, which only caused to further his ire. "I'm just trying to say we can teach them a few charms at the same time. We'll have them practice their aim and reflexes with the new spell; it'll be more efficient that way."

"No! If they have new spells to practice, they'll concentrate on them and not on the dodging and aiming. If I wasn't so quick and agile, or if the Death Eaters were a little bit better at hitting a moving target, I'd be dead right now. This isn't some secondary task they have to learn, Hermione. It's important."

He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, trying to pull himself back together. He wasn't actually angry with Hermione, but Angelina had left him incredibly horny, and he couldn't get up to do anything about it without Hermione (and everyone else in the Common Room) seeing exactly how hard he was. "Those spells were great, Hermione, and we should teach them to everyone, but not just yet."

"Okay, Harry," she said, her voice soft. "We'll wait until they improve before introducing new spells. We should come up with a plan for the first meeting, though. I think they'll be upset about the dodging and aiming. I've heard a few rumors, and I think most of them are expecting to learn really powerful spells like the Patronus."

"Come on then," he told her. "I'll show you some of the tasks I wanted to use."

"We should probably practice them ourselves first," Hermione replied. "It wouldn't look good if we couldn't do them properly."

--

"I spoke with McGonagall like you asked," Angelina told him the next evening. "We're keeping our old schedule but adding extra practices every morning five thirty to seven thirty, starting tomorrow. You just better hope your idea works and Ron improves, or I'm going to hold you responsible for getting us all up so early." With that said, she stormed off toward Fred and George, probably to tell them the news.

"Five thirty in the morning?" Hermione asked incredulously. "Not even Oliver was that cruel."

Harry just shrugged. "I'm hoping Ron will be so tired and mad that he'll forget about his nervousness. With McGonagall keeping the Slytherins quiet, today's practice was an improvement, but catching one in five when the girls are going easy on him just isn't enough to keep him on the team. I know he'll play a bit better if he can just get past his nervousness."

"We need more practice anyway," Harry admitted. "Even if Ron plays his best, he'll be nowhere near as good as Oliver, and the rest of us will need to pick up the slack."

"Keep him on the team? You mean she'd actually kick him off?"

"If he doesn't improve? Yes. The rest of the team already told Angelina to kick him off, but she's giving me till the first game to work with him. If he can't get past his problem by then, he's gone."

"Oh."

Spending an extra two hours of Quidditch practice every morning and an hour every night preparing for the first defense meeting, on top of his already busy schedule of classes, detentions, and normal Quidditch practices, didn't leave enough free time to go to the Room of Requirement again. Actually, it didn't leave much free time at all. If it weren't for Hermione, Harry doubted he'd even have time to do his homework. Thankfully, she was a master at scheduling time efficiently and took care of all the details for him.

On one occasion, when he was just too exhausted to stay up anymore, he even found his homework completed and sitting next to his bed in the morning. Hermione never mentioned it, never acted differently in any way, but he knew it was her.

The Room of Requirement was never far from his mind, and it was all he could think about on the few nights when he didn't immediately drop off to sleep. Even during the days, he kept imagining how the different girls around him looked starkers. It was a much better way to pass time than his previous brooding.

After a particularly grueling Friday evening practice, Harry watched as beads of sweat flowed down Angelina's neck and disappeared beneath her Quidditch robes. _Why hadn't he thought of it before?_

Calling out that he was going to fly some more, he mounted his broom and was little more than a blur before anyone had a chance to respond. He flew around for a few minutes to make sure no-one was going to come up after him before flying towards the back of the castle.

Casting an unlocking charm on one of the seventh floor windows he arrived to the Room of Requirement and went in looking for Angelina in the showers, but she wasn't there. A little disappointed, he wondered where she was when the view turned slightly and he saw her standing there with her back to him. She was still in the locker room talking to Alicia, who was facing him wearing only a bra and knickers.

Angelina's long, dark and muscular legs were a thing of beauty to Harry. The knickers she wore covered next to nothing in the back, and he wondered just why she'd wear something like that at all — not that he minded of course. Two milky-white scars, probably from one of her numerous Quidditch accidents, were visible near the small of her back and stood out in stark contrast to her chocolate skin. Her back and shoulders were more muscular than he thought they'd be, but the difference from what he imagined only added to the thrill of seeing her like this.

Smaller than Angelina, Alicia's moderately tanned body was no less wonderful. Her legs and thighs were thinner and more toned compared to Angelina's muscular ones. Actually, she was much thinner overall, and he could make out the shape of a couple of her ribs and small hipbones. The white, flowery bra she wore showed off breasts that were smaller than he thought they would've been. They still looked incredible on her lithe frame, and he figured they'd fit nearly perfectly in the palm of his hand — something he was sure would happen in his dreams one night.

Katie joined in the conversation with Angelina and Alicia, and Harry mentally focused the screen to zoom in on her. He was even more surprised by what he saw of her than the other two. Her soft, yellow bra was plain and boring; but it didn't matter, her breasts were surprisingly large, and she didn't need a fancy bra to show them off. It's not that they were huge or anything, actually they looked perfectly proportioned on her. It's just that she normally wore such loose clothing he never even imagined Katie had those underneath! She was neither as muscular as Angelina nor as thin as Alicia; rather, she was a decently toned in between. All three were gorgeous in different ways, and he couldn't decide who he wanted to look at first. If only he could see them all.

A second later, he found himself not watching the three girls from the Room of Requirement, but actually standing _in_ the girl's locker room with them.

Fear coursed through him as he slowly backed away from the girls. If any of them turned his way for even the slightest second, he'd be caught! Along with the fear was an incredible sense of excitement, which confused him. He wasn't sure why the thought of getting caught excited him, but it did.

Harry's heart jumped a moment later as Alicia turned his way to say something to Katie. He wasn't sure how she missed him, but he wasn't willing to test his luck a second time. No longer caring if they heard something, he turned to run towards the back of the locker room only to find himself heading right into the nearest lockers. It was too late to stop, so he braced for the impact and found himself going … through them?

Harry stopped and blinked for a moment. The adrenaline and fear caused his thoughts to jumble as he waved his hand through the lockers a few times. He felt like an idiot. Of course he wasn't actually in the girl's locker room; he was still in the Room of Requirement! Only, it had changed its appearance to his desires and mirrored the actual locker room. Harry just couldn't believe his luck! Two weeks ago, he would've done just about anything to get even the slightest glimpse of a girl in her knickers, and now he was examining three of the prettier girls in Gryffindor tower as thoroughly as he wanted.

Life was good.

--

Unfortunately, like everything else in his life, something good always meant something bad was around the corner. And that Monday was the day for bad.

He should've known the type of day it would be when the early morning Quidditch practice ran over, and he didn't even have time for breakfast before his first class of the day, Divination. Dealing with Trelawney was never fun, but on an empty stomach it was downright annoying. The next class, Double Potions with Snape and Malfoy, was a typical nightmare.

He managed to get through most of the lesson without snapping — though just barely — by thinking of his time in the Room of Requirement watching his three chasers. Malfoy apparently didn't like being ignored. So when Harry took his potion, protected by an unbreakable charm in case it was 'accidentally dropped,' up to Snape at the end of class, Malfoy threw a Filibuster firework into his cauldron. Thankfully the cauldron was mostly empty by that point, and the resulting mess only covered a small portion of the room. While not particularly original, as they had done the same thing to Goyle back in second year, it was quite effective and resulted in Harry being held back during lunch to clean up the mess and another detention with Umbridge that night.

Hermione and Ron saved him a bit of food from lunch, but it wasn't much. He scarffed it down on his way to the next class: double Defense Against Dark Arts with Umbridge.

This time, not even the memory of Angelina, Alicia, and Katie helped, and Harry was in a thoroughly rotten mood by the end of class. How he got through detention with Umbridge without cursing her, he'd never know. She kept him well past the two-hour mark. By the time he was let out of detention, he was already late for practice, and he didn't have time to worry about healing his hand. As if playing Quidditch with a hurt and still bloody hand wasn't enough, Angelina was pissed at him and seemed to take a special pleasure in making sure he knew it.

Thankfully, Hermione had a bottle of Essence of Murlap ready for him when he plopped down on the sofa next to her.

"How was practice?" she asked, hoping to take his mind of his hand. "We've been so busy this last week I haven't asked."

"Better than before, but in some ways it's even more frustrating," he told her as he closed his eyes and rested his head back against the sofa. "The morning practices are working out just like I hoped, and Ron catches about half of them now, even when the girls are playing decently well. Anytime they actually push it, Ron will miss a couple in a row and convince himself that he's not good enough. Once that happens, he'll start missing more and more until he finally just gives up."

"The afternoon practices are a little worse, as it still bothers him that the Slytherins are there — even if they are keeping quiet for now," said Harry. ". "Don't get me wrong, he's far better than he was last week. He's just not as good as he is in the morning. The girls came up with the idea of starting easy in the beginning but making it look like they're playing harder. Then they slowly push things further as practice goes on. From the little I saw today, it seemed to work just fine."

"And the Twins are absolutely no help. They're not stupid enough to go against my threats directly, but they're finding other ways to do it. They even taught a couple of the younger years to transfigure things into a spider to scare him for free jokes." Harry moved his glasses back up his nose, a tell Hermione long ago learned meant her friend was stressed. "As if making Ron believe in himself isn't hard enough already."

"Come on, Harry," she said as she got up from the sofa.

"Where are we going?"

"Outside, to the lake. There is still an hour left of sunlight, and you've been running yourself ragged all week. You need a break."

"What is Hermione Granger telling me I need a break before I even start my homework? he teased.

"I learned my lesson about too much work third year, as you well know," she replied in a huff, though there was a smile on her face. "Now come on, you'll just have to do your homework after we get back. You're not getting out of it that easily."

The walk down to the edge of the lake was silent until Hermione ordered him to take off his shoes.

"What?" he asked her in surprise.

"Shoes. Off. Now."

"My family started doing this the summer after second year," Hermione commented a moment later as she swung her bare feet in the lake. "I made up all the work from when I was frozen during the summer as well as worked ahead quite a lot. I was quite stressed at first. After a couple weeks, Mum started making all of us go out on the deck and sit with our feet dangling in the pool as we ate — no school work of any kind allowed."

"I was furious at first," she admitted. "But after I calmed down, I realized just how much I missed my family and how much of their lives I was missing. It's actually the first time my sister and I really got along. I mean, we never hated each other or anything, but before that we were just too different and avoided dealing with the other more than was necessary. Once we were forced to really start talking, we found we had both changed over the previous two years and got along a lot better."

Harry smiled at that, happy that she would share such a memory with him. While not strictly against the rules, every student learned their first year that mentioning the Muggle world, especially a Muggle home, in anything but the vaguest detail was _not_ acceptable.

It wasn't just the Pure-blood supremacists either. To almost all of Hogwarts and the vast majority of the Wizarding world, the Muggle world was taboo. As far as they were concerned, it was a completely separate world, and the moment a witch or wizard picked up a wand, they were supposed to forget everything about the other one. While not obviously stated, Hogwarts policies and traditions were also designed to separate the Muggleborns from any connection to their family and former life. By the time Muggleborns graduated, they were little more than strangers to their own family, and they were more likely to stay primarily in the wizarding world than mix between the two.

It was one of the few things he actually respected about his roommate, Dean. Dean's West-Ham posters were thrashed more than a few times a year, but he kept them up anyway. After the third time it happened during first year, he sent an owl to his family and had them send as many posters as they could get their hands on. A few days later there were two posters in the dorm instead of just one. The next time it happened he added a third.

Since Harry, Ron, Neville, and Seamus didn't care, talking about the Muggle world in the privacy of their own dorm was, grudgingly, accepted by the other years. Sometimes Dean even started conversations about football or some other Muggle activity in the Common Room, knowing full well the posters would be torn down again in retaliation. It was his small way of rebelling.

A couple of the others, Hermione included, had their own ways of rebellion.

Not often, but every once in a while, Hermione would put down her quill and use a fountain pen her father bought her instead. Once the ink dried, most people would never be able to tell the difference, but it didn't matter. She knew, and that was enough.

Her other method was her letters home. During the year, Hermione routinely borrowed Hedwig to send novel length letters as a way to keep connected to her family and, to a lesser extent, the Muggle world.

Harry still remembered his second year when, about a month after Hermione was frozen, Hedwig delivered two letters to him from her parents. They hadn't heard from her for in over six weeks and were worried. The owl they rented to deliver their first post returned with its letter unopened.

When he went to McGonagall, he found out that once Muggleborn children stepped onto platform 9 ¾s they became apprentices of Hogwarts and the parents were no longer involved in anything to do with the children. Hogwarts policy prohibited them from informing Muggle parents about their children's schooling. He and Ron wrote her parents back, trying to explain how she was in the hospital wing frozen but would be completely fine once the Mandrakes matured. It wasn't a particularly good letter, and they ended up having to write two more times before answering all of her parent's questions.

"Even when we traveled," his brown-haired friend continued, "Dad made sure every place we stayed at had some sort of pool or lake we could use. We'd go there for either breakfast or dinner and make plans for the next day."

"What's it like?" Harry asked when she fell silent again.

"The vacations are wonderful. Reading about the different histories and cultures, both magical and Muggle, has always been interesting. Actually getting to see it firsthand, is nothing short of amazing. I know most people think history is boring and useless, but it's not!" she said enthusiastically. "It's the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illuminates reality, vitalizes our memory and imagination, and can provide guidance for our daily life."

Hermione continued on about the history and cultures of different places they visited, but he wasn't paying all that much attention to her words. It was her tone of voice, her body language, and the look of passion on her face that stole his attention. In his mind, little could ever compare to the thrill he felt when pushing his Firebolt to its limits, and that was what he now saw in Hermione. For the first time, Harry thought he could actually understand her. Hermione's passion for learning, for books and the knowledge they held, was like his passion for flying.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hem hem," Harry said in a fake imitation of Professor Umbridge as he and Hermione walked up to the chalkboard with their names on it.

"Good afternoon, and welcome to the first class of Defense Against the Dark Arts. I'm Professor Potter and this is Professor Granger." Harry saw a few people smile at his imitation and thought he heard a laugh or two, but besides that everyone still seemed to be looking at him a bit awkwardly.

"Now that won't do at all. Let's try this again, shall we? Good afternoon, class!"

There were more laughs this time as they chanted, "Good afternoon, Professor Potter."

"Much better!" Harry said as he switched back to his normal voice. "As I'm sure you all noticed, this room is not normal. Each of the fourteen doors leads to a different section of the castle. In order to keep from being noticed, you'll each be put into a small group and assigned a specific door to use. We'll also be splitting the class into two separate groups to make it easier to schedule around the different school activities, so be sure to talk to either Hermione or me within the next couple days so we can get everything finalized.

"Now, thanks to Umbridge and her ridiculous decree, this meeting is against school rules. We hope that in calling it Defense Against the Dark Arts, anyone who overhears you talking about it won't automatically connect the name to an illegal club. Still, it'd be best if you didn't really talk about these meetings too much."

"One other thing," Hermione added. "If everyone started using this room as a shortcut for classes, it wouldn't remain a secret for long. So the doors will only open if Harry is already inside."

There were a few grumbles and a couple dirty looks shot Hermione's way, so Harry quickly spoke up, hoping to take some of the unwanted attention away from her. "We're going to start with each group having two classes per week. There will be a one- or two-hour meeting during the week and a two- or three-hour weekend meeting."

"Right," he said, more to himself than the group. "I think that's about it for announcements. Any questions before we start?"

"Yeah. What are you going to teach us?" asked Zacharias Smith.

"First we're going to review some basics like aiming and dodging. Then we'll move on to stunning, disarming, and summoning charms, before hitting shielding spells. Once we've all got the basics down, we'll move on to the more advanced tactics and spells."

They expected the grumbling and complaining that followed his announcement. Surprisingly though, it was Ginny who seemed to be the angriest about it, or at least the most vocal.

"Any first year could cast those!" she yelled. "What good are weak spells like those going to do? "

Harry could tell Hermione was as shocked by her outburst as he was. Still, a plan was a plan, and when Hermione sent a questioning glance his way, he nodded.

Less than a second later all hell broke loose as Harry pulled his wand and quickly sent a series of stunners into the crowd, hitting Ginny first before moving on to those around her. Hermione sent her own volley of stunners into the crowd, and before anyone had time to react, they'd already taken down five of the 26 students.

Easily dodging the few spells coming his way, which wasn't hard considering few would've come close to hitting him if he'd been standing still, Harry sent a few quick summoning charms on the students towards the back of the crowd. He never kept the charm active for more than a few moments, just long enough to knock over anyone in front of them and cause a bit of mayhem for the group.

Hearing Hermione start to cast the Lumos Solaris spell, Harry turned head and covered his eyes the best he could. It was a risk, as it left him open to last-second attacks, but it'd be worth it if he could keep his sight. A moment later, the room became so bright he could see the light coming through his own hands. Blinded, the rest of the students were easy pickings for the pair.

A few students tried to make their way out of the mass of people; but more often than not, they only ended up running into someone else and falling to the floor. Several of the students began getting their sight back before he and Hermione could stun everyone. As they launched an offensive against their two teachers, Harry had to start concentrating on dodging curses more often and attacking less.

Hermione was finally stunned, and by Ron no less. Harry was surprised to see that it'd been him at first, but he quickly realized he probably shouldn't be. Ron may not have practiced with them over the last week, but he'd probably picked up a few things when they'd practiced for the tournament last year. After quickly stunning him, Harry jumped out of the way of two more incoming spells before launching an attack of his own. He didn't bother with accuracy this time, merely sending a quick succession of spells toward them so he could take a stock of the situation. It wasn't good.

With Ron out of the way, it left four people for him to deal with: Katie, Susan, Luna, and Padma. Unfortunately, without Hermione drawing half the fire, all four girls now concentrated on him. After dodging some of their spells, Harry decided there was a very good reason why these four were the last standing. Only a minute later, it was clear he had to end this — and soon. While not actually working together, the girls picked up a natural rhythm for their casting that allowed them to keep a constant barrage going against him. The constant dodging and blocking of spells left him no chance to plan an actual attack. If things continued like this, he knew it'd only be a matter of time before one of the girls hit him.

Without a moment's pause, he changed directions and charged directly at the closest girl, Katie. She easily dodged out of the way, but the distraction was all he needed to send a stunning spell directly into her chest. The remaining three girls were a lot more cautious and kept their distance after that.

Unfortunately, his charge left him near the front of the room. The girls used this to their advantage and began backing him up against the front wall, which severely limited his ability to dodge spells. It was only as Padma stepped over Hermione that an idea came to him. Casting the Siren charm to create such a loud wail that it'd effectively deafened everyone in the room, Harry pointed his wand toward Hermione and enervated her before quickly dodging another volley of spells from the girls.

Hermione glanced around for a mere second before coming to her senses and stunning Padma in the back. Susan was surprised to see her Ravenclaw friend fall and turned towards the unconscious girl, giving Harry the perfect opportunity to stun her as Hermione took care of Luna.

"Well, that was fun," Harry commented breathlessly, though he was quite serious. The fight really had been exhilarating. It hadn't been on par with a good Quidditch match, but it was a close second.

When Hermione didn't say anything, he looked up to find her deep in thought with a frown prevalent on her face. She must be furious with herself for getting stunned — especially by Ron. He could only imagine the amount of bickering this would lead to.

"We should start waking them all up," Harry told her, hoping to take her mind off whatever she was thinking.

"Thatis why we're going to start with reflexes and aiming first before we go on to other spells," Harry told the grumbling crowd. "The hardest spell Hermione or I used was the summoning charm, which you fourth years should be learning soon, if you haven't already. Besides that, all the spells could easily be taught to a second year. The trick is being able to use them effectively in a fight. Once you get that down, we'll work our way to more powerful spells, but not until then."

"But that wasn't a fair fight!" exclaimed Michael. "You just started stunning people with no warning."

"What does fair have to do with anything?" asked Ginny with a surprising amount of venom in her voice. "Do you think Death Eaters are just going to politely knock on your door late at night and ask if it's okay to torture and murder you and your family? Do you think they're wait patiently for you to prepare yourself and then bow like a proper duel?"

"Hey, you're the one who was against it in the beginning!"

"You're right," Ginny admitted. "I was against reviewing. But in case you didn't notice, they just proved me wrong. The pair of them took down all of us: 26 against two. And. We. Lost. Don't you see? If they'd been Death Eaters, every one of us would have been tortured, raped, or killed!"

An uneasy silence filled the air after that, and Harry decided it was a good enough time to end it for the day. "All right, everyone, that seems to be enough for today. We'll start the first meetings sometime toward the beginning of next week. Make sure to get in touch with Hermione or me in the next few days so we can get an exact schedule for everyone."

"Katie, Padma, Susan, Luna," he added a moment later. "You four did incredibly well during the fight and were the last ones standing. I have a reward if you want to stay after a few minutes."

Over the next hour, the six of them actually had a nice time talking and joking back and forth. Even Hermione seemed to have forgotten her earlier anger and enjoyed the warm taste of Butterbeer and chocolate. When Harry brought up how well they did, he was surprised to learn just why each of them could fight better than their peers. It also brought home to Harry how Voldemort affected a lot more people than just himself.

Katie's mother was a Muggleborn witch, and her father a Pureblood. He'd been murdered for 'polluting' his bloodline shortly after her mom became pregnant. When Harry and Dumbledore claimed that You-Know-Who was back last year, they both took it very seriously. Her mom even considered taking her out of Hogwarts and moving away from Brittan, but she decided against it, as last time around no-where in the world was safe from him. They did end up moving over the summer. She wasn't allowed to have any visitors anymore or tell any of her friends where they'd moved.

It turned out that Padma and Parvati spent nearly all summer with extended family in India where the government announced You-Know-Who's return only two weeks after their arrival. India was taking the threat seriously since it had been one of the worse hit countries last time around. Apparently, they still taught and believed in the old ways, before the International Confederation gave so much power to the so-called Purebloods. Neither had known anything about the Ministry of Magic denying Harry's claim or slandering him until they'd returned home two days before school started.

Susan explained that her auntie gave her a couple advanced books on defense to study over the summer and taught her a few tricks to help escape any trouble. Amelia wasn't positive if You-Know-Who really was back, since she didn't know the details of what happened, but she had not been willing to take any chances with family. Susan also told him she hadn't believed the _Prophet_ either, having learned second year to be skeptical of the rumors about him.

Luna's reasoning was actually quite a bit different. Apparently, she needed quick reactions and good aim in order to stun the ever-elusive Wandering Wisp — a glowing, translucent, non-corporeal being that could fly right through solid walls. As humorous as Harry found her explanation, no one, not even Hermione, could question her effectiveness.

"Well, that went well," Hermione said once the other girls left.

"I'm sure a few aren't too happy with us, but our plan worked better than I expected. Ginny was a surprise. I can't believe she was the one to argue against us!"

"That caught me by surprise, as well," she admitted, "though it makes sense if you think about it."

"How does arguing with us make sense? I may not be great friends with her, but I've never been anything but kind to her. And I thought you two were best friends."

"Hardly," replied Hermione. "We get along well enough during the summers because we're the only girls around; but aside from that, we're not really close. As for it not making sense … Take a minute and really think about it. What Ginny went through her first year affected her in ways we'll never understand. It took her nearly two years just to be able to act like herself again. Now, not only is her tormentor back from the dead, but the Ministry — the government she was brought up to trust and believe in — isn't doing a thing about it. She probably feels powerless and wants to prove herself anyway she can. I wouldn't be surprised if she becomes one of your most dedicated members."

"We should keep an eye on her though," Hermione added a moment later. "I may not be her best friend, but if there's any way we can help her deal with her demons …."

Harry grinned to himself as thoughts of watching her in bed last week flashed through his mind. He had no problems with the idea of keeping his eyes on her.

Unfortunately, he didn't get a chance to keep an eye on her that night, as his duties as best friend kept him busy. They weren't in the common room for more than a few moments before Ron came over and, after the initial questions, lorded his stunning Hermione over her. It was only Harry's reminder that it was secret club that prevented him from announcing it to the entire common room. Still, he managed to find ways to bring it into the conversation throughout the rest of the night.

Stunning Hermione was no small feat, and Ron was right to feel proud of it. Harry didn't like the bragging he was doing, nor that he was putting Hermione down so he could feel better about himself. He may not have been doing it intentionally, but still … It was something that Dudley or Malfoy would do — not something Harry would do. And it certainly wasn't something he wanted done to one of his best friends.

He always hated his friends bickering and arguments, but he'd never considered how it affected either of them before. What Harry was seeing tonight made him stop and truly think about it. Hermione was pulling away from them, concentrating more and more on her books and less on either of them. This wasn't the fist time it'd happen. It was quite common actually, and he always just assumed Hermione became engrossed in whatever book was in front of her. He'd never before questioned that assumption.

She hid it well. But with as closely as Harry was watching her, or more specifically, her body, he could tell the effect each one of Ron's crass comments had. Was it always like this? Slowly throughout the night he watched as Hermione's smile and enthusiasm from their meeting faded. By the time they were ready for bed, Harry knew he had to do something. He slipped her a note before heading up with Ron.

"Harry?" Hermione whispered as she felt something touch her arm a half-hour later.

"Get under the cloak."

"Where are we going?"

"To meeting room to practice some more," he whispered back, enjoying the feel of her body pressing slightly against his more than he probably should have.

"When Ron doesn't get close to even touching you next time, you should make a few comments of your own. Maybe then he'll understand what it feels like."

Hermione stilled for a moment, surprised and startled that Harry saw how much it affected her.

"I know you'd never say it to him; you're not like that. Like them."

"Thank you," replied Hermione. Her voice was barely more than a whisper, but he could almost hear the smile in it.

The elation he felt from their successful first meeting and from knowing that not everyone counted him a lunatic carried over to the next few days. The conspiracy was still in place, and most the female members were coming up to give him their schedules. Several of the male members stopped by to talk, as well; but it was all the attention from the different girls that helped make his overall mood the best it'd been since the third task.

Quidditch practice was also going well. The girls' idea of putting on a show of playing worse than they were to build Ron's confidence worked fairly well. Between it, the extensive practices, and keeping Malfoy and the Slytherins away, the team could see his confidence grow. He would never be on Oliver's level, at least not without a great deal more discipline and practice, but they could now realistically hope for victory.

With the increased preparation for the Gryffindor Quidditch match, Hermione's only choice for the weekday Defense meetings were after the evening's practices Wednesday and Friday. The meetings actually worked out quite well. The smaller size gave Harry the chance to really see what each person needed help with. Unfortunately, his prediction came true, and it was clear that his fellow students would require a great deal of practice hitting moving targets before they'd be really effective. The class went decently at first, with everyone walking around and casting spells at life-like stationary targets Hermione transfigured from the stone floor.

It was the second half of the class that showed the real problems. Harry conjured up a few head sized rubber balls and tossed them around the room. It took everyone three tries before the first student, Luna, was even able to hit one. Hand eye coordination really came into play; and by the end of class, some of the more athletic students were able to hit one or two of them. Luna, Cho, Ginny, Michael, and Dean were the first group's winners; Katie, Alicia, Angelina, and Fred and George (Harry counted the twins as one person since they took turns at the same time) were the second group's winners.

Thankfully, that Friday night Harry didn't have to worry much about homework and was able to sneak out for a visit to the Room of Requirement.

He found Tonks reading through a few files while sitting on a couch in Grimmauld Place. He wasn't sure if they were for the Order or the Ministry. Using the trick he learned last time, Harry was instantly standing in the same room with her, and he walked behind the sofa to read one of the files over her shoulder. It seemed to be about the movements of a Greek man he'd never heard of, Gabric Valhauskus. Shrugging, he stepped back and enjoyed watching her for a few minutes before switching the room to Fleur.

The room changed to a rather girly, but very impressive, bedroom where Fleur stood wearing a white silk blouse and little else. Merlin was she beautiful! Fleur's long fingernails slid easily underneath the elastic of her panties, and she pulled the black silk material out from between her magnificent, pert arse and down her long legs. She took off her blouse next; and once again, Harry was amazed at how perfect her body was. Walking around the bed to the full-length mirror, she placed her hands near her toned stomach and stood there looking at herself. Her hands slowly traced her body as she turned slightly to her left and then to the right, examining for any traces of imperfection. There were none.

One hand slid down her legs and then back up between her thighs where she slowly traced down the small strip of blond hair. Just as she reached her center, she turned and walked back towards the closet. Taking a short, dark dress from the closet she put it on over her head, which caused a moan of disappointment from Harry.

It was only after she left her flat that he realized she never put on any underwear. The thought of her walking around in nothing more than that small dress was just too much for him to wrap his mind around. Had she done similar things while she was at Hogwarts last year? Did other girls do that?

He was still reeling from that revelation when his next target appeared before him. Ginny was standing in a corridor, her shirt un-tucked and partially open, making out with Michael Corner! He watched them for a few minutes and was rather amused, though a little shocked to find that she was the aggressor, not Michael. Michael was pinned to the wall as she rather forcefully kissed him, one hand in his hair and the other roaming over his chest.

A few minutes later, he apparently pushed things a bit further than she wanted. Once he finally finished unbuttoning her shirt, his hands began to inch upwards. Ginny stopped the exploring she was doing and grabbed the offending hand to prevent it from going any further. Harry couldn't hear what they were saying, but after a few words and a couple more quick kisses, Michael left.

Harry watched amazed as Ginny slowly tucked in and buttoned her shirt before calmly walking back toward Gryffindor Tower. This definitely wasn't the little girl he first met five years ago. But then again, he wasn't the same boy he'd been back then either, so why not her?

In a way that thought startled him. Not about Ginny, but about himself. He changed a great deal over the last several years and knew it. But for some reason, he still thought of himself as the small freak who lived in the cupboard under the stairs. That was something he'd have to change. There's no way he was going to let the Dursleys win like that.


	4. Chapter 4

Sighing mentally, Harry turned to the next page of the useless text in front of him. Defense Against the Dark Arts class had become an utter waste of time. The only redeeming aspect of the class was that it provided him with an hour and a half to give in to his hormones and fantasize about the witches he knew. His serendipitous gaze fell on Hermione for a moment, and he was struck again by how cute she was.

Hermione would never be the most beautiful girl in school like Cho or even the Patil twins. Nor would she be as well endowed as girls like Angelina or Lavender. She was not, however, the ugly bookworm many Slytherins called her. Like she showed the school last year, Hermione could be quite beautiful when she wanted too. Harry found he rather liked that she rarely took the time to fix herself up. It made her seem special — different from the other giggly girls. She was also his best friend. And while she didn't really understand him — this summer had proved that — Hermione still knew him better than anyone else.

As if sensing his thoughts, or at least his stare, she looked up at him with that adorable, probing expression of hers. That was one thing Hermione had over other girls. Her expressions were part of her. When she smiled — truly smiled — her entire face lit up, and it was just amazing. Whether she was annoyed, determined, or even confused, you could always tell with. Harry knew she was trying to figure out why he was staring at her, but that was something he was rather confused about himself. Not wanting to have her guess his thoughts, Harry just smiled at her and slowly moved his eyes back down to his text where it belonged.

That lasted for all of two paragraphs before the pointlessness of the text became too much and he looked up once more. This time he caught sight of Parvati. There was no denying that she was easily the most beautiful girl in their year, along with her identical twin sister Padma. A part of him couldn't help but imagine what might have happened last year if had he not been so hung up on Cho.

After the Yule Ball, Parvati had been perfectly happy ignoring him, and Harry figured things had been messed up permanently. This year, however, she seemed to act completely normal around him. They talked a couple times during the meetings, and she had even come up and asked him for help outside of the meeting. Perhaps things weren't all that bad between them after all. He nearly smiled at that thought, but caught a slight movement from Parvati. Quickly, he ducked his head back to the text in front of him. Being caught looking at Hermione was one thing; she was his best friend. To be caught staring at Parvati though …

Deciding it was time to think about safer subjects, Harry started coming up with another idea for tonight's practice. Quidditch had continued to eat up most his free time, but the practices themselves were much more enjoyable and less annoying than before. All their plans and hard work had paid off, and Ron's confidence had improved noticeably. There was still a great deal of work to do, but he and Angelina were sure the worst was behind them now.

Even outside of Quidditch things were going better for him. The next couple defense meetings went well, with nearly everyone hitting the moving targets at least a few times. Things were going so well in the classes that Harry actually looked forward to them.

Other things were changing because of the meetings. During the day, he often found himself talking to the different members. Mostly it'd just be to give advice on how to improve or hints on what they'd be doing in the next lesson. Surprisingly, he found it rather easy to talk to the girls, something he'd always thought was difficult before. Most the times they just talked about the defense meetings, Umbridge, or the upcoming Quidditch match against Slytherin. But occasionally, they talked something that actually interested Harry more than just the normal chitchat.

When Angelina first told him being looked at could be a turn on, he thought she'd been having a bit of fun with him. He wasn't so sure anymore, as a couple of the girls had gone out of their way to give him a better view. Hanna and Susan in particular seemed to enjoy giving him an eyeful when they found him, Hermione, and Ron at the library studying. Though nowhere near the view Angelina had given him in the common room, it was still more than he'd ever seen before this year. The milky white cleavage hinted at just how well endowed Susan was, and that her smaller, but quite perky, blonde friend wasn't wearing a bra. When Harry looked up into their faces, he knew he'd been caught; but all they did was give him a sly wink and giggle at his blush. Ron, thankfully, was rather oblivious. But Hermione had caught on and given Harry a rather knowing look that caused him to blush even harder.

Snape, Umbridge, and Malfoy were still being their normal selves. It didn't really matter to Harry anymore. Between all his good moods, paying more attention to the different girls in class, and his little epiphany in the Room of Requirement, many of the little slights that used to bother him didn't seem to matter. He still found them annoying; but really, what must their lives be like that picking on a 15-year-old guy was the highlight of their day?

Thinking about it like that, Harry actually found their attempts rather humorous and could not understand why he'd let it all bother him for so long. It's not like he wasn't used to being treated badly; and compared to the Dursleys, Malfoy was an amateur. The only good part of it was that once Harry realized how truly pathetic they were, his silent laughter seemed to infuriate them more than ever. Not caring was getting to them more than if he'd actually tried!

Now Malfoy he could slightly understand. For all his talk, Malfoy wasn't the top in any class, not even potions where Hermione and Susan took the top spots, and he couldn't come close to Harry's skill in Quidditch. Being rude was pretty much the only thing he was known for, and considering Malfoy had barely changed insults since first year, he wasn't all that good at it.

Umbridge was a different story altogether. Though the Dursleys hated him, they rarely actually hurt him — at least not physically. Locking him up in the cupboard for a couple days with no food or water was a common past time, but to the Dursleys he wasn't even worth the effort of hitting. No matter how much he may dislike his relatives, Snape, and Malfoy, Umbridge was the only one he actually hated. He wasn't a vengeful person at heart, but one day he would get his revenge.

While fun, pissing them all off did carry a few dangers with it. Snape was in rare form and never missed a chance to take points away or give a detention. During the last few days alone, Harry had lost no fewer than 30 points — almost single handedly dropping Gryffindor to last place — and three detentions with Umbridge. He was just glad that his fellow housemates stopped caring about his lost points long ago. Most of them, having seen Snape's hatred of him, just considered all of Hermione's points to even out whatever he may lose. As long as he helped the Quidditch team beat Slytherin, all would be forgiven.

--

Harry felt the blood surge to his head and heard a thumping noise in his ears. His detention passed in the same way as all the others. Another three hours of carving 'I must not tell lies' into the back of his hand. He knew he should head directly back to Gryffindor tower to do homework after Umbridge's detention, but he just didn't care. He might be in a better mood this week, but his anger at the unfairness of it all still boiled just beneath the surface. It threatened to rear its ugly head once more, and Harry needed to relax before he snapped again. He had enough problems as it was and didn't need to add to them. After Reaching the Room of Requirement Harry found himself in his comfy version of Gryffindor common room. Grabbing a defense book from one of the shelves, he sat back and decided to check in on Tonks.

Harry blinked, looked again, and then blinked once more. He knew Tonks dressed slightly like a punk, but he'd never seen her in anything close to this before. Then again, he'd only known her for part of the summer and doubted she would wear something like this around Mrs. Weasley. Tonks still looked stunning, and not for the first time he wondered again about just who she really was.

The young Auror wore thigh-high black leather boots, torn black jeans that were so tight Harry figured she'd morphed into them, and a small red top that was ripped to show off her toned midriff. Just below her navel was a tattoo of a Celtic cross that continued on past the edge of her extremely low-riding jeans. She still had her normal heart shaped face thankfully, but she now sported bright pink eye shadow matched the color of her hair. One of her eyebrows, and if he was seeing things correctly, her tongue, were pierced with a small silver stud.

Her outfit wasn't out of place because she was in a rather sizeable club filled with at least a hundred other punks or goths. There were quite a few of your average Joe's there, too, which surprised him. A small Asain girl who looked like she still belonged in school, not a punk club, was talking with her. She had long black hair that ended near just about her waist, and matching Tonks, wore a pair of skin-tight black jeans and a deep red top that left little to the imagination.

A band played as quite a few people plastered together in front of the stage shouting and dancing away. After watching them for a few moments, Harry sat back and began reading one of the books from the shelf, hoping to relax a bit before having to go back to Gryffindor tower. It turned out to be a surprisingly interesting book, and he picked up several ideas from it. A few he could have used before, and knowing the trouble he often found himself in, would probably need in the future. One of the most interesting sections was on how to be on the offensive even while defending. Another was dedicated to strategies when working with a partner. That particular one he definitely wanted to teach later on in the year.

When he took a break from reading, Harry saw that Tonks was in front of the band dancing with her Asian friend — or what he supposed was dancing. It was a lot different than the Yule Ball last year. His pink-haired friend looked like she was having fun, and Harry could not help but admire their forms as they moved. It was rather amazing to see how they could move their bodies so much while staying in the same spot on the floor.

After watching a little longer, Harry decided to see what everyone else was doing. Fleur, rather surprisingly, seemed to still be working at Gringotts, and he stopped to watch her for a bit. He didn't understand exactly what she was doing, but she seemed to be casting several spells at a piece of parchment. What they did he didn't have a clue since there were no visible effects to the spells. It was rather interesting to see such a studious look on her face though.

Harry had watched Fleur some during his fourth year and could honestly say he'd never seen her look like that before. Normally she just wore either her perfect smile or a look of barely hidden disdain and contempt. After a few minutes of casting different spells, a visible glow surrounded the parchment she was working on. Writing appeared from the previously blank parchment, though it was in a language Harry didn't even recognize.

What surprised him even more than the writing was the smile Fleur wore. She looked ... truly happy. And if Harry were to guess, she was a bit proud of her success. It was a sight that Harry never thought he'd see on her perfect face, but it was one that took his breath away.

Switching the window over to one of the Hogwarts girls, Harry sat spellbound as he watched the sight before him.

Marietta and Cho were lying on the bed together, and they were kissing! They were kissing lightly, their lips barely touching, but Harry could almost see the underlying care and passion they felt. Eventually their passion took over, and they crushed their mouths together, their sweet tongues thrusting into each other's mouths. Marietta stopped after a few minutes, and her hands slowly pushed her lover away while giving a few lingering touches of the lips. She reached down and undid the zip at Cho's waist, pulling off her skirt and throwing it to the floor. Her blouse and bra were taken off next, and Harry was enthralled by the way Marietta slowly laid butterfly kisses over her friend's bare chest and stomach.

Once she made her way down to Cho's panties, Marietta hooked her thumbs into the waistband and pushed them slowly, teasingly, over her hips. The Chinese beauty wiggled her hips slightly to help them off, unknowingly giving Harry an even better view of her amazing petite arse. Marietta grabbed Cho into a fierce kiss and pushed her backward into the bed, their lips never separating.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Marietta kissed and licked her way down her lover's body. Avoiding the area between her legs, the reddish blonde-haired girl continued down Cho's right leg before switching and making her way up the left one. Harry watched as Cho's body arched when Marietta finally licked her nether lips.

Moving to get a better view, Harry could see Marietta kissing and nibbling Cho's lips, which were being spread out by her fingers. Watching his former crush gasp and twitch from the pleasure, Harry instantly decided that some of the other boys were full of it with their stories. He'd thought to catch Cho naked, perhaps even giving Marietta a kiss, but this… He never even imagined such things actually happened outside of the magazines. Merlin, if only he could feel it!

The next moment Harry panicked as everything disappeared. He tried to flail about only to find he could no longer feel his arms. As he began processing what was happening he realized he couldn't feel anything, he couldn't see anything. He had no arms, no legs. He tried to gasp for breath only to find he wasn't breathing. Mentally he screamed, but nothing came out. He had no mouth, no body.

Like a storm the world of color and sound slammed back into Harry. He could hear Cho's moans once more, could see the beautiful Chinese girl's body up close before him, and taste her wonderful nectar. It took him a moment to process that, and he tried to shout as he realized he could taste Cho right then. His mouth didn't obey, however. The panic from a few moments ago began to set back in. He could feel his body, could feel Cho below him, but he couldn't move himself. It was acting on it's own.

Slowly, the panic abated as the intense sensations continued to bombard him. As the panic disappeared, Harry realized he was Marietta now, or rather that somehow he was a guest in her body. Ever since he flew against Cho during his third year, she'd been the star of his dreams in one situation or another. Now that it was happening, he gave in completely, no longer caring about the how or why, but just enjoying the experience.

--

Harry had a hard time believing what had happened the night before when he woke the next morning. Not only had he watched Cho and Marietta together, but he had somehow become Marietta, feeling what she felt and hearing, tasting, and doing everything she did. The physical experience was great, but it was the emotional pleasure that truly blew Harry away. Instinctively, he understood that it hadn't been a dream as it'd been too real, detailed, and exact for him to ever dream.

He knew Hermione, and girls in general were more emotional than boys, but feeling Marietta's emotions showed him just how little he actually understood. There were dozens of emotions swirling through the girl, with depths that he'd have never guessed. Harry liked Cho and thought she was beautiful, kind, and funny. He admittedly had a crush on her, but it was nothing compared to Marietta felt. When Marietta whispered, 'I love you' to her friend's sleeping form, the emotions were beyond anything he'd ever felt before. A part of him — the part that wasn't still in awe at everything he'd experienced — couldn't help but be jealous of Marietta for feeling such love.

To say that Harry's mind was preoccupied that day was the understatement of the year. In fact, no fewer than half a dozen people asked if everything was all right. Hermione, of course, was the first to notice and seemed to keep an extra close eye on him throughout the day. What exactly could he tell her? Somehow Harry didn't think 'I'm just a little preoccupied from my experience of becoming a women and making love to hottest girl in Hogwarts,' would go over all that well.

--

The rest of the days before the Gryffindor/Slytherin game passed by in relatively normally. Angelina was not happy that he couldn't attend the last two evening practices because he had detentions with Umbridge. Thankfully, Ron's continued, albeit slow, improvement helped limit that anger. Harry could only pray that his friend would not screw up too badly during the game, or else he could forget about any sort of 'reward' from Angelina.

--

"OK, I've only just found out the final line-up for Slytherin," Angelina said as she consulted a piece of parchment. "Last year's Beaters, Derrick and Bole, have left, but it looks as though Montague's replaced them with the usual gorillas, rather than anyone who can fly particularly well. They're two blokes called Crabbe and Goyle. I don't know much about them –"

"I do," Harry interrupted, gaining everyone's attention. "They're Malfoy's goons. Not a single gram of intelligence, sneakiness, or cunning between them — just pure thugs. True Slytherins to the bone."

They all laughed at that, and Angelina continued to give them her first pep talk, though Harry tuned most of it out as usual. He was slightly nervous but knew it would disappear the moment he took to the air.

"It's time," Angelina finally said as they heard the echoes of cheers and boos coming from the stadium as the Slytherin team took to the field. A few moments later they were on the field, and Harry watched Montague and Angelina shake hands and trade customary insults. Madam Hooch called for them to break it up, and after they had each mounted their brooms, blew her whistle.

As Harry took off into the air the worries of the world were left on the ground. Laughing, he banked sharply and accelerated down to the ground, pushing his broom for more and more speed. Merely a meter above the ground, Harry gripped his broomstick as tightly as he could and slammed on the brakes, not even waiting to fully stop before taking the broom nearly vertical as quickly as he could. This was what he loved; this was where he belonged.

The game started out tentatively; both teams seemingly wanted to test the quality of the other first. The damp air and fog, even though it wasn't as bad as some weather they played in, held up the game a bit, so passes were lower and shorter. It tended to compress the size of the pitch a bit, pulling the chasers into the crowded middle a little more than they would have liked.

That was until the Slytherins took to their normal tactics and slammed both Bludgers at Harry when he wasn't anywhere near the Quaffle or going for the Snitch. Not that it really mattered to him. Harry had long since been used to being hounded by the Bludgers and easily maneuvered them back toward Fred and George, who pounded the Bludgers towards where the Slytherin chasers were advancing the Quaffle further up the pitch.

It actually was turning out to be a pretty good game. Instead of going after everyone, the Slytherins' cowardly and underhanded tactics were geared mostly towards him this time. Harry figured he had Malfoy to thank for that bit of idiocy, and he was quite fine with it. On a broom, he was more than a match for any other player at Hogwarts. Besides, as long as they were focusing on him the rest of the team was free to play with only minimal interference.

Then they went after Angelina.

Harry saw it happening, but he was too far away to do anything but watch. Angelina had just caught a pass from Katie when Crabbe took an obviously fake swing towards a ∫ludger, his grip conveniently slipping. The bat sailed through the air and slammed directly into their dark-skinned chaser. There was one long moment where she collapsed and nearly fell off her broom, but thankfully she somehow managed to hold on. She couldn't control the broom and ended up crashing to the ground, somersaulting several meters from the impact.

Harry wasn't even aware that he was moving until he landed his Firebolt and jumped off to see how she was. Madam Hooch was already to her by then, and Harry could tell she was at least conscious, though hurting. The roar of rage from the crowd was drowned out completely as Harry slowly turned towards the Slytherins. The rest of the team seemed to take cue from him, and all turned to follow. The sneer on Malfoy's face faded and turned to fear as his eyes flickered between Harry and the rest of the team.

"Mr. Potter!" a flushed Professor McGonagall called as she grabbed his arm, holding him from the Slytherins. "Mr. Potter, that is far enough. There are better ways! Fighting will only give them the win. Is that what you want?"

"No!" came the violent whisper from Angelina, who was being helped up by Madam Pomfrey.

Turning his head, Harry could see she was serious. This was her first match as captain; she wanted this win, and they would win it for her.

"Right. Are the rest of you as angry as me?" he asked, his voice deathly calm though his body was taut with anger. Using dirty tactics on him was common; he was used to it and didn't really care. But Angelina … They would pay dearly for that.

Shouts of "Yes!" and "Let's shove that bat right up fat boy's arse!" were the replies.

"Good. Hold on to your anger, but don't let it distract you from Quidditch. We're not just playing to win anymore; we're playing to destroy them!"

This met a series of cheers, and Harry remounted his broom. "We know the plays, we know our opponents, and we can do this!"

"I do have one request for you," Professor McGonagall called out, stopping them all. "Gryffindors do not sink to their level of play. Treat the Slytherins as rivals, but remain professional. You are the pride of our house and represent all that Gryffindor is. Play well, play fair and ..." Professor McGonagall said blushing slightly, "play to win!"

They responded with another loud cheer, and Harry took to the air feeling more invigorated than he had since they won the Quidditch cup third year.

Malfoy didn't deserve to sit on a training broom, let alone something as nice as a Nimbus 2001. The only way he knew how to play Seeker was to follow Harry around until he found the Snitch, and then elbow or sucker punch him while making a rush for it at the last second. He doubted it ever even occurred to Malfoy to look for the bloody thing himself. The day Harry lost to the likes of Draco Malfoy would be the day he hung up his broom for good, and he'd be damned if that was going to be today.

Only minutes after getting back into the air, Harry angled his broom down into a steep dive just ahead of the Slytherin chaser with the Quaffle. As soon as he passed the Slytherin he pulled up on his broom hard, ending the feint well above the ground. Hearing the shouts and curses from Malfoy and the chaser, Harry couldn't help but grin. Malfoy, realizing it was a feint, had pulled right into his Slytherin teammate. Looking back, he realized it worked even better than he had planned. Harry had only planned to cause a bit of mischief, but the Chaser must've dropped the Quaffle in order to prevent from crashing because it was now in Alicia's hands and heading back towards the Slytherin rings.

A bit later, having no luck finding the Snitch, Harry happened to glance down and see all three of the Slytherin chasers heading towards the Gryffindor rings in a tight formation. Grinning, he decided to see if Malfoy was really as stupid as Harry thought he was. He made a bit of a show of looking around before tearing off into another feint across the field, aiming well above where Ron would soon be facing the Slytherins. Acting as if the Snitch had just changed directions, Harry broke into a steep dive for a few seconds until he was about even with Ron. Pulling up, Harry saw exactly what he expected. Malfoy, having been paying attention only to Harry, slammed into one of his own chasers, knocking him partially off his broom and ruining their entire play.

"Bloody Hell, mate, that was brilliant!" yelled Ron over the laughter, cheers, and a few boos from the crowd.

The rest of the game went similarly. Harry, having rarely found reason to really push his Firebolt to its limits during a game before, was having the time of his life. He'd mostly giving up looking for the Snitch in favor of terrorizing the Slytherin players. Feint after feint he played on Malfoy, sometimes just too the middle of no-where; other times he'd aim for the Slytherin players in the hopes of disrupting their plays. Malfoy, slow on the uptake as he was, had learned after a while and had long since stopped following Harry too closely.

The other members of Gryffindor's team had been busy as well. Fred and George kept up fairly constant pressure with the Bludgers, causing a few minor injuries, but mostly interrupted plays. Though Alicia and Katie were missing one of their number, they played like they were possessed. Already the pair had scored more than three hundred points between them. Even Ron, the weakest player on their team, was holding his own and stopping more than half the attempts, something Harry was quite proud of. The result of all this was that the Slytherin players were completely demoralized; and in their anger, they made far more mistakes than the Gryffindors caused.

As time went on, the Slytherin's mistakes were only compounded by their fatigue. With how often, hard, and long the Gryffindor team had practiced lately, they found themselves only slightly winded. After all, more than three intense hours of Quidditch practice a day had been quite common for the last couple weeks, and this time the team had their anger pushing them on.

Surprising everyone, after almost four hours of play since Angelina had been sent to the Hospital Wing, a timeout was called as she returned to the air.

"Madam Pomfrey let you out?" he asked incredulously, as he descended a bit to meet her and the others. Madam Pomfrey would never have let him out so quickly.

"Professor Dumbledore spoke with her. Apparently, he thought I'd convince you to end the game and let the rest of the fans go."

Looking around Harry realized the stands were a lot emptier than they had been this morning, with about half the fans having already left. Glancing towards the Gryffindor stands, Harry caught sight of Hermione in her usual spot. She hadn't left. Sending a small wave her way, he returned to the conversation at hand.

"…rest of you," Angelina was saying, "but I say we keep playing. If Harry caught the Snitch now, we'd win by 680 points. But how many teams have ever beaten their opponents by a thousand?"

"A thousand? But that'll take hours!" Ron complained, though Fred and George seemed to share the sentiment.

"Only another hour or two, but just think about it… We'd be securing our place with this victory!" she said with a familiar gleam in her eye that caused Harry to realize she wasn't talking about the school's Quidditch Cup, but rather her position as captain and future in the sport. A part of him couldn't help but agree with Ron and the others. The excitement, energy, and anger from earlier had worn off, and at more than five hours since the match began, they were all feeling the fatigue. Still, if it helped Angelina, he could go for a bit longer.

"Come on, mate. Don't you want to prove to Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherins that, for all their money and influence, they're no better than you?" Harry asked, knowing exactly what to say to get through to the three Weasleys.

--

Harry threw the wet and slightly bloody towel into the laundry basket for the elves to take care of later. Letting out a slow hiss, he flexed his sore muscles one way then another to see if the pain would leave any time soon. Seven hours. For more than seven hours he had flown the hardest and best he could, pushing his Firebolt and himself to the limits. Wincing as he picked up his clothes, Harry glanced down towards his bloody hand. The scars on his right hand, almost always sore from Umbridge's punishments, had broken open and begun bleeding only a couple hours into the game. He'd been able to push it out of his mind with the anger from the Slytherin's attack on Angelina. But now that the game was finished, he was feeling the pain.

Walking into the large washroom, he looked at the mirror and was shocked to see Angelina in the reflection behind him. "Angelina!" Harry called out in surprise.

"The others have left already," she said in an even tone as she walked closer to him, her face strangely closed and emotionless. "Fred and George went to get something more serious for the party, and the others went up to the Tower."

"Uh… I was just enjoying a spray under the water," Harry tried to explain, not really sure what to make of her acting like that.

"We beat them by more than a thousand: 1310 to 260!" Angelina suddenly shouted as she tugged him into her. "First time in Hogwarts history, and we did it! Can you believe that?" Harry didn't have time to be act as she suddenly pulled him into a kiss.

The first time Angelina kissed him, he'd been shocked and it hadn't been until she deepened the kiss that he even reacted. He'd mentally berated himself for losing precious seconds of such an opportunity for weeks now. This time Harry kissed her back eagerly, wanting to make the best out of every second she gave him.

Carefully they both began to respond more to the brief kisses. Each time they lasted longer and longer until Angelina decided enough was enough and invaded his mouth her with tongue. She felt him reciprocate and brought her own tongue back as she suckled his, enjoying the low moan of pleasure he gave. She was a little surprised when, only a few moments later Harry mirrored her own actions.

The kiss continued for a long time, breaking off briefly for air only to continue once more, each time with an even greater fervor. She changed techniques several times, and he responded in kind, adapting to her quickly so he didn't waste this amazing opportunity. Part of him figured he wouldn't get another chance like this for a long time, and he wanted to make the best of it.

Angelina could tell he was still inexperienced. Where other boys had just been rough and clumsily, Harry seemed eager to learn and was a very fast study. As she opened her eyes, she saw that his were just beginning to open, a look of awe held within them. Her eyes widened as she heard the soft whisper of 'Angelina' come from his lips in an almost reverent tone. Was his impression of her that good?

She wanted him happy, sure, but she was using him to get ahead in Quidditch! He had to know that, didn't he? Yes, she wasn't playing him. She'd been upfront and obvious with everything. He had to know. Was Harry so used to being used that he was touched to such an extent just because she did something in return for him?

Angelina glanced at his face again, at the calm, dreamy expression it held and the soft, caring, look he gave her. How could this happen? Was his life so full of pain that a simple little kiss could make such an impact on him? It was too much for her to think of right then, so she kissed him again instead. If he wanted to be that grateful, she'd at least give him a real reason to be.

The last kiss had been soft and caring, starting slowly and growing in intensity. This kiss was completely different. It was forceful and demanding, and he responded in kind. Her moan of pleasure only egged him on further as he fueled the kiss with all the passion he had. Emotions he'd never knew before flooded through his body, but he ignored them, concentrating his entire being on the incredible pleasure of the kiss.

There was nothing else except the feeling of her tongue swirling around his, of her large breasts pressing into his chest through their shirts, of her hands moving down his back. Harry pulled back slightly as he felt her hands on his arse, but she pulled him closer and kissed him again.

Harry's eyes widened as a minute later Angelina took his right hand and pulled it to her body, placing it directly onto her breast. He blushed but wasn't going to argue if this goddess wanted his touch. Angelina shivered as she felt the gentleness of his hand against her breast. Placing her hand on the back of his, she carefully showed him how to knead and explore her breast, paying particular attention to her sensitive nipples. "Yes, just like that," she moaned softly as he brought his left hand around to explore her other breast. Even inexperienced, his gentle nature made him perfect for such a sensitive task.

Deciding he was doing just fine on his own now, Angelina bent down slightly and took his mouth in hers once more. Tugging at his shirt, she slid her hands underneath it and began exploring his chest. Mirroring her own movements, she felt Harry do the same. The feel of his surprisingly soft hands on her bare chest was intoxicating, and with a bit of a start, Angelina realized she hadn't been in a similar situation since her ex-boyfriend graduated nearly four months before — far too long in her opinion.

Nearly fifteen minutes of intense snogging followed before Angelina reluctantly separated herself. "We need to get going," she told him, as she began to fix her clothes up. "They'll start wondering what's taking us so long."

Failing miserable to hide his disappointment, Harry just nodded. He must have looked pretty pathetic because Angelina just laughed at him before giving him another quick kiss. "Don't look too put out. There are still a lot of practices left, and I'm not through with you just yet," she said, surprising them both with her words.


	5. Chapter 5

Angelina stifled a laugh as she overlooked the chaos from her spot on the stairs above the common room. Nearly all of her housemates were already tipsy, if not well on their way to being drunk. Harry was one of the few exceptions to this, having learned his lesson about drinking too much after their victory against Slytherin during his first year. Just about every Gryffindor fifth year and above had become completely plastered during that particular party, and though most the Quidditch team was younger, they'd all joined in on the fun. Of course, they'd had a great deal to celebrate back then, just like they did now.

It was rather amusing, if not a little sad, at how similar this celebration would be to all the others. She could already hear a couple raunchy pub songs being sung — well perhaps sung was too nice of a word. A few of her housemates had already disappeared to find some abandoned corner or spare room to snog in, while others indulged in even more liquor. A few of those would end up either throwing up or making complete arses out of themselves. Good fun for all, but it'd been done several times before.

Actually, it was amazing how quickly everyone could get used to this. During her first year, Gryffindor had not won a single game, and there'd been no Quidditch celebrations at all. After Alicia, Fred, George, and she had joined the Quidditch team in her second year, they'd at least managed to tie Hufflepuff and only barely lost to Ravenclaw. Most of Gryffindor celebrated after the Hufflepuff game, but Angelina and Oliver both knew they should have done better and didn't join in. It wasn't until the following year, when Katie and Harry had joined the team, that they had their first victory. It'd been Gryffindor's first win in three years.

Quidditch wasn't the only thing to change. House pride as a whole was nearly non-existent back then. Slytherin had been the best and most prestigious house, with Ravenclaw taking second. It wasn't until Harry had arrived that things began to change. Having _The Harry Potter_, even if he looked nothing like what everyone expected, was a source of pride among the Gryffindors.

The beginning of her fourth year, his second, was a huge change for Gryffindor because the previous June they'd won the House Cup for the first time in seven years. The Gryffindors actually started to wear their badges with pride and participate in the school more, which earned even more points, pride, and respect. A year later, when Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup for the first time since Charlie Weasley had graduated ten years before, the change had become complete.

It wasn't just Harry, she understood that, but he had been the catalyst. Once they felt what it was like to actually have pride in their house, everyone worked that much harder to keep it. Now, house pride, Quidditch parties, and respect were so common no one really thought twice about it. But Angelina, like a few of the other older students, still remembered.

Searching the common room, she found the subject of her thoughts near the fireplace surrounded by tipsy well-wishers — with the exception of Hermione, who sat next to him reading a book amid the chaos. It was rather obvious from his stance and the way Harry kept looking at the floor that he wasn't comfortable accepting their praise. This was just one of the many oddities of Harry Potter. He regularly performed in front of a stadium full of students — and had since he was 11 — with no problem. He could keep his cool under any situation, take on and argue with professors that scared even Fred and George, fight Dragons and Merlin only knows what else, yet he couldn't handle well-deserved praise.

Many just assumed it was a false humility, but she knew better. That was just the way Harry was. Before today, she'd barely even spared it a moment's thought. But now, it confused and bothered her.

_An enigma, that's what he is_, Angelina thought to herself as she unconsciously took another glance at him.

The little orphan who often wore ill-fitting, hand-me-down clothes was the same confident young man who taught students two and three years his senior better than most of their professors. The shy boy below her blushed and stuttered when being complimented, yet he was also the determined Quidditch player who fired up his team and led them to a victory unheard of in Hogwarts' history. Harry had done it for her, that much was certain. She'd seen the way he looked at her when she'd been injured on the field and watched the anger in his eyes turn to determination. He'd led the team and won the game **for her.**

Many boys had tried to gain her favor since she'd begun to grow breasts during the summer before her third year. They'd tried to impress her with their money, with their clothes and good looks, with their brains and intelligence, or with tales of their stupidity. Harry was a different story. Where they bought her trinkets, completed her assignments, or did idiotic things in her name, he'd helped guarantee her the future she'd always dreamed of.

All right, so she felt something for him. She felt things for a lot of guys though, so it didn't mean anything. But that didn't explain why she'd reacted the way she had, the way she still was.

_What was it about Harry that made him so special? Just what type of a life had he lived to react the way he had, and did she deserve the respect and near reverence he gave her?_ _Sure, they talked, and she considered him a decent and reliable friend, but it wasn't like she had ever really gone out of her way for him before._

Shaking her head, Angelina decided it was best to go down to the common room again before her thoughts completely turned her inside out.

--

Everyone was in such high spirits during Sunday's longer defense meetings that Harry decided they were finished with the reflex and aiming training and moved on to learning a couple new spells. Only a few could hit the small moving targets with any success, but they had improved greatly from the beginning, and he'd make sure they continued to work on it throughout the year. Today, though, he wanted to keep them interested and happy.

To prepare, he'd gone over his lecture on basic shielding spells and how to use them with Hermione earlier that morning. As he stood in front of everyone, however, his nervousness returned slightly, and he mentally questioned each aspect of his plans. He could handle teaching the practical nature of magic without a problem, but Harry didn't have the same confidence when dealing with theory and lectures.

Once he began, though, all the nervousness left, and Harry felt nothing but the calmness he usually associated with flying. A thrill ran through him as he felt the sensation of leading them. The entire group, even those who last month would have never considered going to him for help, were responding to him, listening to his every word, and believing him! He mentally shook himself and got back to his lecture, but he couldn't help the pride he felt.

The rest of the meeting actually went fairly well. The Protego charm was a rather basic shield used to block low and mid-power spells, but it could also be used in several ways that most people didn't think of. One method in particular that Harry liked was to use the charm as an outer shield to reduce the power of more advanced spells before they hit his real shield. As the spell was simple and fast to cast, another method was to keep the shield well in front of you in the hopes that any spell would impact it and cause the attack to veer off to a side and miss.

Harry had found the full body shield in a book about proper duels that he'd nearly skipped. The author mentioned that many ideas from duels could be used in real combat situations, so he'd read on anyway. The spell created a translucent, physical shield that covered the entire body and remained a few centimeters away as you moved. It was weak and wouldn't protect the user from magical attacks, but it did protect against hand-to-hand fighting and from being hit with potions or other objects. It was something he could have used in the graveyard last year, as he had received several nasty cuts from the exploding head stones.

Flinging a potion at someone was a form of attack Harry had never thought of, but he could understand. Even in their classes, students needed to wear protective gloves and goggles to prevent serious injury. Another advantage of a full-body shield was that it doubled as a weapon. Since it created a physical barrier around your entire body, the shield would hit your opponent before your fist would, causing a great deal of pain to the enemy and next to none to you. Harry wished he'd known the spell years ago when Dudley and his gang used to beat him.

After pairing everyone off, he and Hermione walked around the room helping each person by correcting small flaws in their wand movements or giving them a few of the other tips he'd read from the book in the Room of Requirement. There were a few problems, but overall Harry was impressed with how easily each person picked up on the shielding spells.

By the end of the three-hour meetings, all but a few of the younger students could cast the two spells. The majority could also produce a fairly powerful shield that stood a fair chance of blocking an attack. Only a couple could actually cast the spells quickly enough to be of real use in a fight, but it was a good start.

What Harry found most surprising was how seriously people were taking the lessons. A few came to both the Sunday morning and afternoon meetings, and a couple others stayed late to get in a bit more practice and one-on-one time with him. Some of those who stayed for both meetings he could have guessed: Padma, Susan, Luna, and Ginny, as they were among the most dedicated in any meeting. The real surprise was that Parvati stayed for both meetings as well. The fact that Katie decided not to stay also surprised Harry a bit. Since the first meeting, she had regularly been among the most dedicated, and Death Eaters had killed her father. He'd just assumed she'd be there.

Overall, the meetings were going much better than he and Hermione had anticipated. There'd been no real problems with his leadership after the first day, and even the normally less than respectful students were behaving well enough. The security measures of splitting everyone into two groups and using different doorways also seemed to be working fairly well.

So far as they could tell, Umbridge had no idea the group existed. The only apparent problem was with other students. It wasn't a big deal yet, but a couple of the members reported that a younger girl they didn't know had mentioned the defense group. Harry reminded everyone to be careful when talking about the meetings and hoped that would be enough until Hermione came up with something better.

--

Whenever something good happened in his life, something bad happened to offset it. And with Halloween occurring later in the week, Harry expected even worse than normal. That was why when Harry walked down to breakfast on Monday morning, he was preparing for bad news. What he found, however, did not meet his expectations.

The Gryffindors apparently weren't ready for things to return back to normal, and he, Ron, and Hermione walked to their normal seats under the applause and congratulations of their housemates. Angelina, Katie, and Alicia were already there, but when Fred and George arrived several minutes later, they too, were applauded. Even the other houses seemed to get into the celebratory mood, and while everyone expected breakfast to be a little rowdy after a Quidditch match, Professor McGonagall actually had to stand up and calm everyone down before it got out of hand.

While History of Magic was as boring as ever, Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts were interesting. Snape's snide comments and Umbridge's blatant lies were as annoying, but Harry was far too happy to let them bother him. Besides, he had other things on his mind: Malfoy and the Slytherins.

It was not what they were saying that caught his attention, but rather the absence of any sort of snide remark or insult. Throughout the entire day, Malfoy didn't utter a single word. In fact, there wasn't so much as a single peep from any of the Slytherins outside of answering questions.

Now Harry understood a little of what Snape and Malfoy must've felt when he stopped paying any attention to them. After years of predictable behavior from Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherins, having it change so quickly was … disconcerting. Thankfully, Snape and Umbridge were as typical as ever and assigned him even more detentions, not that it mattered as he still had a full week's backlog of detentions to go through first. If things kept going at this rate, he'd be in detention nearly every day for the rest of the year and still have plenty left over for next year.

Despite all his detentions, Harry actually had more free time now than in the last few weeks. Ravenclaw had to play Hufflepuff, and then Slytherin had to play Ravenclaw before Gryffindor would finally play again. That gave them another two months before their next match. And, after having won by such a large margin, Angelina was actually giving the team a bit of a respite.

Their extra morning practices were canceled now that they didn't need to worry about Ron's confidence. She also reduced the standard five practices a week down to three, but then lengthened them from two and a half hours to four hours. Even without the extra anger egging them on, the advantage Gryffindor gained because of the team's greater stamina was significant. Angelina planned to take advantage of that in their future games and was changing their practices to emphasize it.

The experience with Marietta had shown that there was a lot more to the room than Harry first thought, and he wanted to learn more about it. Harry tried to use his new free time in the afternoon and evenings to explore more of the Room of Requirement, but he found it was rather difficult to disappear for long without his friends asking questions. While he managed to spend a bit of time there after his detentions, it wasn't nearly long enough, and he ended up visiting it during the late nights again.

Though he didn't care for the process, as the horrible experience of disconnecting his own senses and reconnecting to theirs remained, Harry was able to reliably bind himself inside of other people. He didn't dare try the headmaster or any of the teachers, just in case they caught him. The rest of the student body, however, was open to him, and he eagerly tested the ability out on several. It surprised him just how different each person felt.

Cho, the first person he tested it out on after the Marietta incident, was a mess. Harry couldn't read her thoughts and didn't want to just yet, as dealing with the physical and emotional sensations was difficult enough. She could go from feeling helpless and not caring one moment to overwhelming sorrow and self-loathing the next. Harry understood her all too well though.

He was sure Cho also had problems concentrating, couldn't sleep — or at least couldn't sleep normally on her own — and was probably growing incredibly annoyed and frustrated with her friends. Technically, part of Harry knew other people had problems, too, but it had never really registered before that others felt the same way. Experiencing it like this really brought that fact home, and while he felt bad for Cho, it made him feel better about himself as it meant he wasn't the only one who was screwed up.

Hermione, on the other hand, was comparably stable and very driven. Nearly everything about her was very specific. Even in walking there wasn't the normal sense of leisure or frantic hurrying Harry was used to. Instead, she walked with a purpose: getting from point A to point B efficiently. Talking to Ron and a couple of their other friends, in this case Neville and Dean, who were teaming up to play chess against his red-headed friend — was different, as Hermione seemed to be slightly more laid back with them. Even then though, it wasn't anything like what Harry normally felt. He knew it was possible for Hermione to relax as she did it with him often enough, but in the hour he followed along in her body, he never once felt it.

Angelina was incredibly strong, confident, and most definitely a Gryffindor. Everything about her attitude seemed so self-assured and bold that it took him by surprise. He could be confident and brave when he needed to be; but on a day-to-day basis, he was still rather self-conscious. Harry had only recently realized his insecurity was a problem, and that he really shouldn't act that way. Changing himself wasn't nearly as easy a task as he'd first thought it would be.

Angelina, on the other hand, was anything but insecure. When she was in the common room or walking down the hall, she knew guys were looking at her, but she didn't care. If anything, it actually made her even more confident. If she felt like doing something or talking to someone, she just did it. There wasn't the normal doubt and worry that Harry felt. It was a rather enlightening experience over all, and he couldn't help but feel a bit jealous for how easy dealing with people came to her.

Pleasing a woman had been on his mind in the past, but never before like it was now. Normally it was just an abstract thought in the background, knowing that someday he'd have his chance, but it'd always been further away in the distant future. With Angelina and whatever they had — and Harry wasn't sure what exactly that was — the time was hopefully coming a lot sooner than he expected. The fear of disappointing a girl, while always having been present, was made even worse by knowing Angelina was a lot more experienced than him. Even with the experience of being Marietta, he felt woefully underprepared and was hoping the room would help him with that.

It took him three nights, but finally he stumbled upon Fleur and Bill together. As the longhaired red head was probably the coolest person he knew, Harry was hoping to learn a thing or two from him by binding himself inside of Bill. Unfortunately, no matter what he tried it wouldn't work. Even when attempting to become Fleur nothing happened. After a few minutes, he gave up on the idea of experiencing it first and decided on a different learning method — spying.

There was a fundamental difference between watching Marietta and Cho compared to Bill and Fleur. Where Marietta was soft, caring, and slow, Bill was rough, powerful, and demanding. Bill knew exactly what he was doing, and Harry was hoping to benefit from that experience. As it was, he was shocked and amazed at what was happening before him. Harry, like most males in Hogwarts, had 'read' and talked extensively about girls and sex. Within the last couple weeks though, Harry had learned so much that he couldn't believe just how naive they'd all been. The show before him was nothing like any of them imagined or claimed to have experienced.

Bill's fingers and mouth expertly played Fleur's body, causing her to moan and scream as he desired. He continued using her body roughly for quite a while before finally giving in to her cries and allowing her the pleasure she so longed for. Once she came down from what Harry was sure must've been a mind-blowing orgasm, Bill flicked his wand and her arms were bound above her head, though her legs were left free.

Grabbing an ice cube out of the glass on the table next to the bed, he brought it over to her body and slowly traced each nipple before slowly running it down her toned stomach and then back up again. Fleur gasped at the cold but remained still, waiting anxiously for what would come next. Placing the melting cube into his mouth, he then softly traced her gorgeous lips with the ice until she opened her mouth and welcomed both the freezing water and his hot tongue. After a while of snogging, they separated, and Bill grabbed another ice cube from the glass.

This time, as he used the ice to trace down her body, he followed up by kissing and licking the icy path as he went. When he reached her nether lips, Harry was amazed to see Bill continue to tease her with the ice. Fleur gasped and her body writhed, but it did little to stop Bill. He easily maneuvered her legs out of the way and continued to tease her with the ice until she was once again moaning and screaming in lust and passion.

Bill wasn't done yet though. Moving up her body, he thrust into the gorgeous blonde, causing her to throw her head back in a silent scream. Leaning forward, he ran his lips along her neck before biting her flawless skin. Harry could nearly feel Bill's lust rise as he bit her again and again, never hard enough to draw blood but more than enough to leave an imprint. Moaning, Fleur arched back, trying to push her body into him as she wrapped her legs around him. Bill responded by thrusting into her with an even greater urgency and bringing his hands up to her body to pinch and grasp her chest. Just as things were reaching an even greater peak, he slowed down.

If it wasn't for the intensely erotic nature of the situation, Harry would've laughed at the look of fury and contempt Fleur sent the redhead. She tried to move her body and coerce him, but Bill merely continued with his excruciatingly slow rhythm. It was then that Harry learned an important lesson. This wasn't just about sex to Bill; it was about doing it _his _way. He could see the cocky little grin on the curse breaker's face, and Harry was sure his thoughts were something like _I am in control here. I'll tell you when you can finish._

That continued for a while until Fleur finally gave in to her passion, and Bill knew he had won. The redhead slowly worked his way back up to speed and once again began deeply kissing the half-veela until they were both nearly incoherent with desire. This time, there was no teasing; and with a few more violent thrusts, they each found their release.

Afterward, Harry just sat there in an awed kind of wonderment at what he'd witnessed. It was a completely different experience than he expected, though he couldn't deny being turned on by seeing the perfect French princess begging and pleading for relief. The thought of Angelina beneath him like that stayed with him and was the main theme of his dreams that night. He wanted to do that with her — maybe not so much to make her beg, but make her moan like Bill had, and more important, give her such pleasure …

The failure to bind himself inside of Bill and Fleur re-enforced the need for Harry to more thoroughly explore the Room of Requirement. Waking up early in the morning for Quidditch practice the previous few weeks had been annoying and a bit tiresome, but it has also been productive. With his body already partially used to the schedule, Harry decided that instead of staying up late and waiting for everyone else to sleep before heading to the room, he'd just wake up early and go before the others woke up.

The Room of Requirement had several limitations that he found. One of the most obvious was that the room was significantly weaker once it involved something outside of Hogwarts' walls. Using it, Harry could bind himself to anyone inside of Hogwarts with no problems: male or female, sleeping or awake. Once he was outside of the actual walls to the school, he couldn't. And, as he painfully learned one morning, the moment the person he was in walked outside of the school doors, the connection broke. The pounding migraine he received from being forcefully ejected from the girl made sure he'd remember it for a long time to come.

Outside of Hogwarts, the room appeared to be limited to spying only — and even then, it still had other limitations, though Harry had not yet figured exactly what they were. Distance never seemed to matter. He'd successfully viewed Hogsmeade, Grimmauld Place, Diagon Alley, and the Dursley's house on Privet Drive with little problems. However, several places he also tried to view failed. The Greater Whinging Zoo, for example, wouldn't appear. And he couldn't use to the room to just try to wander around. The immediate areas surrounding Privet Drive, Grimmauld Place, and Diagon Alley were viewable, but any further than a few blocks away from them was not.

Inside of Hogwarts, however, the room was incredibly powerful. Not only could it spy on everywhere he tried — though he was still too wary to try the headmaster's tower — and bind himself inside of people, but he also made a door from the Room of Requirement connect to the one inside his dorm. That little feature greatly helped his use of the Room, as he no longer needed to sneak back into the Gryffindor Tower when he finished.

Harry decided against trying to sneak into the girl's dormitories with it, even though that was one of his first thoughts. The stairs were incredibly well warded against any boy walking, flying, levitating, crawling up the wall, or otherwise entering the girl's stairwell, and he didn't want to risk setting off some sort of alarm if their dorms were protected as well. Harry knew he had a very good thing going at the moment, and he wasn't about to lose it by being foolish.

--

Back outside of the room things, were changing. Winning by such a huge margin and defeating the previous record, set more than 200 years previously when Quidditch was not taken nearly as seriously as it was now, impressed a lot of people. For Harry it was a double-edged sword. Recently, he'd begun to enjoy the attention of the different girls in the defense meetings, and this just gave him even more attention from the fairer sex. But it was also a different sort of attention.

With the girls in his Defense Against Dark Arts classes, he had something other than himself to talk about. That, he was learning, was what he'd always hated about the attention. Harry didn't mind talking when it was about something else, like the defense meetings or just chatting in general. This time, though, the attention was all about him: his part in the Quidditch match, his abilities, and his future. That is what bothered him.

A few of the more annoying girls even had to gall to suggest talking to McGonagall about taking over as team captain. Harry vehemently disagreed with them, and he informed them in no uncertain terms that Angelina was the captain.

It wasn't just Harry though; everyone from the team was receiving a lot of attention. Like after the second task last year, Ron loved the attention and could often be found entertaining someone with stories of his Quidditch prowess. Actually, it looked like all the others loved the extra attention. It was also the reason why Katie wasn't staying for the extra defense lessons. Apparently Roger Davies had been impressed by her performance and was spending a lot of time with her. Harry didn't know what the deal was exactly, but neither Angelina nor Alicia was particularly happy about it.

Harry found himself spending his extra time in the afternoons with Hermione in the library. Thankfully, she understood his problem and never asked him why he was suddenly going with her to the library. He knew using her as a shield was getting her some evil looks from the different girls, but she didn't seem to mind. The one time he brought the subject up, Hermione merely said that it was their problem and not to worry about it.

Spending time at the library with her was an eye-opening experience. It wasn't even close to the first time Harry had gone there with Hermione, but it was different this time. At the beginning of last year, when Ron was being a prat and not talking to him, he and Hermione spent nearly all their free time in the library together, but it'd always just been the two of them. Now, however, Hermione was rarely alone in there.

Instead, she had a small group of friends who studied at her table under the watchful eyes of the librarian, Madam Pince. Padma Patil, Terry Boot, Ernie Macmillan, Susan Bones and Hanna Abbott were all regulars at the table. It was surprising to realize that Hermione had an entire life he didn't know about, though it did help explain why she'd invited more people than he thought she would to the defense lessons.

Thankfully, everyone in the group was part of his defense lessons and at least somewhat trusted. So instead of studying his normal classes, Harry opted to finally start learning more about his family. He'd been meaning to do it ever since his talk about Pureblooded families with Hermione a few weeks ago, but he hadn't had the time until now. Oddly enough, it turned out everyone there knew more about his family than he did. The wizarding world was small when it came to the Purebloods and just about every single marriage and child, legitimate or not, was well known and documented.

It also turned out he was distantly related to Hanna Abbott and Ernie MacMillan, as well as several other students in Hogwarts. Hanna and Ernie weren't dating (as he had first assumed); they were cousins who had grown up together in their family's manor. They both also considered Susan family, as she'd been friends with them for as long as they could remember.

Apparently, it was common for friends in Hogwarts to have known each other most their lives, as Pureblooded families often initiated formal friendships with others who had children the same age. Not for the first time, Harry wondered what it'd have been like to grow up in a proper family like that, to have had parents and friends, and have known about the magic beforehand.

Harry asked a few questions the next day to try and figure out how Hermione had joined the group. Near the end of the first semester last year, she and Padma helped Parvati and Lavender with an extra-curricular project. Hermione and Padma apparently got along pretty well and started meeting to study in the library afterwards, and once she started seeing Victor, he started studying with the pair as well. With Padma and Krum there, a couple other Ravenclaws would stop by, and then a couple more from the other houses until they had their own little study group.

_How could Hermione have been friends with them and he not know about it? _It took a few minutes for the answer to sink in, but Harry felt sick when it finally did. It was quite simple really; when he stopped spending time with her, Hermione found others who would.

Harry now realized that after Ron had come back, he had stopped spending time with Hermione outside of classes, meals, and during the evenings inside of Gryffindor Tower. They were still together a lot, which was probably why he hadn't noticed, but it was a shock to learn that he'd pretty much written her off in order to spend time goofing around with Ron. He wasn't particularly bothered that Hermione had other friends. In fact, Harry actually liked that he, Ron, and Hermione now hung out with more than just the three of them. It was the fact that he hadn't noticed that bothered him, or more aptly, that he hadn't cared enough to notice. After that realization, Harry was too distracted to really concentrate on reading and instead decided to leave the library early.

Walking toward the great hall to grab an early dinner, Harry saw Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle standing further up ahead near the staircases surrounding someone. Malfoy had stayed quiet the last few days, but it looked like he was up to his old tricks again.

"… with all your zits, you ugly bitch," Harry could hear Malfoy say to the girl as he pointed his wand at her face. "I thought I told you before, you're a disgrace to your bloodline and your parents. So why don't you do us all a favor and leave!"

"I seem to remember your father wanting to ship you off to Durmstrang so he didn't have to deal with you, Malfoy," Harry said as he placed himself in front of the girl. "So why don't you do us all a favor and leave her alone."

"Saint Potter!" spat Malfoy. "Here to save the day even when it doesn't involve you."

"You've been so quiet lately that I thought the humiliation we gave you last weekend taught you a lesson. I guess picking on girls is more your style though."

Harry had barely noticed the growing crowd around them until Malfoy went to cast a spell at him. Four older Slytherins, probably seventh years from the looks of them, instantly moved in beside Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. That worried him a little. Malfoy and the stooges were nothing more than pathetic bullies, and Harry would have little problem with them. But he didn't look forward to seven against one. Regardless, he wasn't about to back down to a bunch of Slytherins. They stared at him, and he stared right back at them.

"We protect our own and don't like it when they're threatened," one of the seventh years said to him, a tall girl with ash-blonde hair and, though he tried not to notice, surprisingly large breasts. "But, we like it even less when one of our own pushes little girls around. It's those types of actions that give our house a bad name. So next time you see something like this happen, come and get one of us, and _we_ will deal with it. Don't try and start a fight, or we'll all come after you. Got it?"

Harry stared at her in amazement for a moment before getting his act together. "Yeah. You deal with him, and I'll have no problem ignoring he's even alive. But if he continues for long, I will deal with it."

"Gryffindors!" the girls said with a shake of her head. "You're outnumbered seven to one and yet still you make trouble. You've got guts, I'll give you that. Not much for brains though. Now get her out of here while we take care of things."

Harry nodded and grabbed the girl before heading up one the side staircases. _What in the world was going on with Slytherin?_ First Malfoy was keeping quiet and behaving and now this …

Once they were on the next floor, he got a good look at the girl for the first time and saw she was Eloise Midgen, a sixth year Hufflepuff who was best known for her acne problems. Harry was rather surprised to see she looked scared and just about ready to cry. The blond Slytherin had annoyed his friends and him over the years, but he'd never thought Malfoy actually managed to scare people.

Thinking quickly, Harry decided to invite her to the defense group. He may have screwed up with Hermione last year, but that didn't mean he couldn't change, and this was a good of a place as any.

"You want me to join your group?" she asked in an amazed tone that Harry figured meant she was still shaken up from the incident.

"Sure, you know Susan and Hanna right? I'll have them bring you next week. We'll figure out your schedule after that."

--

Unfortunately, when Angelina reduced the number of Quidditch practices, she also reduced the number of opportunities for Harry to snog her. Even worse was that he had to cut out of the first practice early in order to head to another detention with Umbridge. Harry thought Angelina might be mad at him for nicking out early, but he was pleasantly surprised by what he found instead.

It wasn't much, but during breakfast the next morning Angelina sat with them for a few minutes to talk. While they were both busy during lunch, she did make a point of stopping to say 'hi' as they passed in the corridors. Later that evening, Harry saw her on the other side of the common room talking with a few of her friends that he barely knew.

Hoping not to make a fool of himself, Harry gathered a bit of courage and headed over to talk with her. It was slightly awkward at first, but thankfully Harry calmed down after a few minutes when everyone seemed to be fine with him being there. This wasn't the first time he and Angelina talked over the years, but never before had either really gone out of their way to talk to the other.

As the week progressed, Harry found himself becoming increasingly moody, and not even Angelina or the Room of Requirement could help. The dread of Halloween was skewing everything. When the night finally arrived, Harry wandered off to be by himself instead of going to the feast. Not only was this the anniversary of his parents' death, but something always seemed to happen on Halloween. With Voldemort back, he really wasn't looking forward to what it would bring this year.

"Hermione figured you'd be here," Angelina said as she took a seat in the grass next to him. "So … are you going to tell me what the problem is?"

"Do you really have to ask?" Harry replied, turning back toward the lake. He really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone right then, but he didn't want to ruin things with Angelina either.

"You've survived Halloween before, and while I can't imagine it's always pleasant, there has to be more to it than that."

"I don't know," he admitted with a shrug. "It's just different now. He's alive again, but they're still dead and will always remain that way."

"Besides," he added a moment later, "you know what Halloween has been like the last few years. I just keep thinking about what'll happen tonight."

"You just haven't had the right kind of experience on Halloween, Harry. Who knows, after tonight you may even find yourself looking forward to it." That said, Angelina took his head in her hands and kissed him, effectively erasing any depressed thought from his mind.

Harry's first instinct after returning her kiss was to feel her chest like he'd been thinking for the last week, and he did just that. Even over her shirt, Angelina's large breasts felt incredible underneath his hands, just like he remembered. After a few moments though, his mind caught up to him. He wanted to do this right and didn't want to appear to be some little kid. It was hard — difficult — to think while kissing her, so he stopped and brought his mouth down to her neck, alternating between kissing and licking, like Marietta did to Cho, and biting, like Bill did to Fleur.

He had thought kissing Angelina's neck would be easier and allow him to concentrate on the rest of her body. He was wrong. The taste and texture of her skin was amazing, and the soft moan Angelina made when he lightly bit her was even more so. He never realized something as simple as a neck could be this amazing, but it was.

It took a lot of concentration and more will power than Harry thought he had, but he managed to stave off his instincts and take his time to thoroughly explore Angelina's body instead of just grasping her wonderful twin orbs like he wanted. He even managed to tease her a little as he went. It was nothing compared to what either Marietta or Bill would have done, he was sure, but Harry loved the sounds of the few moans and even hisses that were coming from Angelina. He loved that _he_ was the one causing her such pleasure.

There are a few memories that Harry would always carry with him. The memory of Hagrid telling him he was a wizard and taking him away from the Dursley's. The first time he ever rode a broomstick and the first time he caught the snitch to win the Quidditch match against Slytherin. Now, on the 14th anniversary of his parent's murder, Harry had another couple memories to add to that list: the first time he ever made a girl orgasm and the first time another's hand caused his own. Halloween would hopefully no longer only be associated with death and pain to Harry, but with life and love as well.


End file.
